A man has appealed for help in finding his father’s ashes which he lost in a Tesco bag for life after ‘one last trip to the beach’ turned into a nine-hour pub crawl.
Stan Blade, 39, planned to make a TikTok video of himself visiting pleasure rides at Southend, Essex, with Stephen Jewitt’s ashes as a final farewell.
But instead of visiting the dodgems on Southend Pier with his father’s remains he bumped into a group of old friends and ended up on a pub crawl in his former home town.
Sometime during the craw, Mr Blade misplaced the shopping bag containing a wooden casket which held the ashes of his father, who died aged 60.
He only discovered his mistake after finally arriving home just after midnight on 18 March.
He confessed to his irate step-mother Emma Hopkins who had previously warned him he could not take the ashes out of her home.
Musician Mr Blade said: “I came home, and my step mum asked ‘where is your dad?’ She was not pleased with me at all, and I do not blame her.”
He added: “My dad was a really funny bloke and he would have absolutely loved the idea of me riding a roller coaster with his ashes by my side.
“He had a good sense of humour, so I just wanted to do something to pay tribute to that as I haven’t visited my hometown in a while.
“The idea was to take him to the beach and go on the bumper cars and get an ice cream, you know all the stereotypical things you do at the beach.
“But I ended up bumping into friends and getting drunk along the seafront.”
After he realised his father was missing, Mr Blade went straight back to scour every pub he had been to with his friends but no one had seen the bag.
He last saw the wooden casket holding his father’s ashes near Adventure Island on the seafront. He then made a TikTok appeal for information on the whereabouts of the remains.
In the video made the same night titled ‘missing person,’ Mr Blade explains he was visiting his hometown from Leicester, where he now lives, to see family and friends when he came up with the idea.
“I convinced my step-mum to do a TikTok,” he said. “I thought it would be funny - put him in the dodgem cars, put him in the big wheel, give him a kiss-me-quick hat and a stick of rock and stuff. She didn’t want me to do it but I did it anyway.”
In reply to his question, ‘are you ready to see the funny side yet?’ his step-mother, Emma Hopkins, 49, said: “Not really no, I’ve f***ing had those ashes for 12 years.
“I told you not to take them to the seafront. All you want to do is do things on TikTok.”
If Mr Jewitt’s ashes aren’t found soon his son said he will report them missing to the police.
Anyone who can help can contact Mr Blade via TikTok @stanstoks or Instagram @stanblade_.
