Overseas death challenges family

WASILLA — It may not be the first thing you think about when you pick up your passport and head out of the country — what happens if I die over there?

A local family has lately discovered just how difficult it is to figure that out. Cory Jones said his father, Charles D. Jones, died while vacationing in the Philippines. His father left for the trip just after New Year’s. Having heard that his father died, Jones said he and his family immediately started making phone calls.

“I called the regular Army, I called the National Guard, Veterans Affairs, the Red Cross, The Salvation Army,” he said. “We had no clue how to get his remains back and his personal belongings and so forth.”

Jones said he finally got some help from the U.S. embassy. Staffers there went to verify the body was Jones’ father. They also gave them a quote for how much it would cost to bring Jones’ father back: $7,500.

“That’s just the money to get him here to the U.S.,” Jones said. There are more costs to pay for a burial and those sorts of things.

Jones said he doesn’t have that kind of money, so he and his family and friends are working to put on two fund-raisers. They’re both on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. One is $10-per-person spaghetti feed at the VFW post on Knik-Goose Bay Road.

The other is a $50-per-person celebration of life at North Bowl on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. There will be two hours of bowling, beer, wine, a taco bar and karaoke.

Jones said he’s been getting posters made from pictures of his father. His dad was a bowler until disabilities made him quit. He knew a lot of people in the bowling community. It was a pastime he shared with his father.

“I still bowl, so that’s why the bowling community is helping me out with all of this,” Jones said. “I was also in the Guard with him when he was in the Guard.”

Hence the spaghetti feed at the VFW post.

Jones’ father worked his career in the military. The Army brought him to Alaska in the late 1970s. He left the Army for the Army National Guard in 1985 and worked there until he retired a few years ago.

After he retired, Jones said, his father split his time between Alaska, Las Vegas and the Philippines. He’d met some people in the Philippines and enjoyed visiting them.

Between bowling and his time in the military, Jones said his father had a lot of friends in Alaska. Having heard the story of the struggle to get his remains back to the states, a number of them have stepped up.

“We’ve got a whole ton of items donated for the silent auction” at the VFW event, Jones said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.