On November 5th, our dad, Robert Kenline, passed away from an suspected overdose. We didn’t find out until a month later, and his body has been with the medical examiner this entire time. Our relationship with him was complicated... years of distance, addiction, and absence... but we still loved him in our own ways. Love doesn’t always look like closeness. Sometimes it’s just the quiet hope that someone might get their life back one day. Addiction tears families apart long before it kills someone, and this situation is one more example of that. But even with everything, we don’t want our dad to be treated like “unclaimed property.”

If we don’t pay the required amount, the state will cremate him as an unclaimed body and place him in a mass grave. We also won’t be allowed to receive any of his personal items... not his wallet, not his ID, and not his wedding band. That ring means the world to the children he helped raise, and the thought of losing it forever is devastating. We aren’t trying to fund an elaborate funeral. We’re simply trying to cover the bare minimum so we can claim his body, keep him out of an anonymous mass grave, bring his ashes home, get his belongings (especially his wedding band), and hold a small celebration of life for the people he mattered to.

The truth is: we cannot afford this. It’s the holidays, money is tight, and this is an unexpected expense that neither of us is able to handle alone. We’re doing our best, but we need help to give him even the smallest amount of dignity in death. Anything you can contribute helps us make sure he is remembered as a person, not processed as a number. Thank you for helping us give our dad a respectful goodbye. Rest in peace, Dad.