Most of Mr and Mrs Green is still sitting in decorative boxes on a mantel-piece in British Columbia, western Canada, but tiny scatterings of their ashes are being distributed around the globe by travellers responding to an online appeal to help them to see the world, or at least to help the world to see them. The appeal was posted recently on Craigslist, the classified ad site, by the Greens' only daughter, Deb. It read: "Both my parents are now dead and the one thing they always wanted to do was travel. If you are travelling somewhere and are willing to take a little of my mom and dad and sprinkle them and take a picture, then please contact me."
Quite a few people have. Ms Green has had interest from fellow Canadians. To those who meet her basic requirement that they be "helpful and respectful" she is sending half a teaspoon of each of her parents' ashes in a small plastic bag. More than two dozen samples have been dispatched so far. She does not insist on knowing where they are going; only that whoever accepts them takes a picture when they get there.
So far, the ashes have been scattered at the base of the Eiffel Tower, outside Notre Dame, in a beer garden in Amsterdam and in a replica of the Tivoli fountain in Las Vegas. Ms Green is keen to find a courier going to Manchester, the birthplace of her maternal great-grandmother, a Mrs Barbour. "At first I was kind of hesitant to get the baggies out," she said. "It felt weird, as if I was losing a part of my parents. But as soon as I started getting the pictures and the stories back it has been awesome. People say it's made them feel part of the family."
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