Bereaved siblings visit funeral parlour every week for 10 years

Two sisters who couldn't bear the thought of never seeing their dead mother again, have reportedly kept her body in an undertaker's fridge for the past 10 years.

Josephine Lamas, who lives in Chiswick, and her sister Valmai visit their beloved mother Annie, who died in 1997 aged 84, each week at the funeral parlour.

Their mother's body was originally treated in formaldehyde but has wasted away over the years according to another family member. However, 59 year old caterer Josephine still regularly touches up her mother's lipstick and foundation and refreshes padding in her stomach cavity.

The family member told The Sun that it was "high time" the sisters organised a proper burial or cremation. "Enough is enough. Valmai and Josie have been diligently visiting their mother's corpse for more than 10 years but it's getting ridiculous now. The body has degraded to the extent that it is just a skeleton with a bit of stretched scaly skin on the head."

At the time of their mother's death a post mortem examination revealed she died from an embolism brought on by leg vein thrombosis but the sisters were not happy with these findings and had planned to demand a second opinion.

The sisters have been paying £20 a week to keep their mother at an undertakers in Wembley, they have also spent £2,000 on five wooden coffins (four have rotted away over the years) and £800 on make-up.

A spokesperson for the funeral directors said they were simply acting on the family's wishes keeping Annie 'alive' in this way. He added that no health and safety violations have been breached and there are no laws saying people can't keep a corpse for years after registering the death.any issues of my life."

September 7, 2007