When Brian Gordon stared into the “abyss” of the recycling centre, he had little hope he would see his mother’s ashes again.
The 54-year-old’s mum Isabel died in November 2020 after catching Covid in a residential home.
Determined for her to see out the remaining life she had lost, Mr Gordon kept a small portion of her ashes after interring the rest at Thurso cemetery.
“I felt my mum’s time had been cut short so I wanted to carry her about with me,” he said.
“She can share my life experiences, she’s there close to my heart and I know she would love that.”
Mr Gordon wore his mother’s ashes round his neck in a pendant made of metal and glass.
But one day he noticed in the shower the pendant with the ashes had fallen off.
Into the Thurso compactor
The Thurso restaurant owner had been helping his daughter, Sarah Malcolm, take old furniture to the local recycling centre where they loaded it into a compactor.
A small bruise on his chest led him to believe the pendant containing his mother’s ashes had been pulled loose as he carried the furniture.
After checking his home and asking his daughter to do the same, he headed for the recycling centre.
His daughter and wife, Angela, had beaten him to it, but to their dismay, the pendant hadn’t been handed in and the compactor had already been used multiple times.
“The thought of not finding her, it made me feel so sad,” he said. “My mother deserves far better than to be in there.”
Upon hearing Mr Gordon’s story, staff member Steven Imlach remembered seeing a small metal object and sweeping it into the compactor. This was enough for his manager Kenny Gow to turn off the compactor.
Needle in a recycling centre haystack
The next morning, a container full of the compacted rubbish was transported to a large shed at Seater, between Thurso and Wick, and unloaded into a space they had made on the floor.
Trying not to be disheartened by the vastness of the task, Mr Gordon, Angela, Sarah and three staff members at the site then began sifting through the rubbish with a fine-toothed comb.
“They did explain to me the compactor squashes eight tonnes, they said that wee thing made of glass and metal might never survive,” said Mr Gordon.
“It was like a needle in a haystack. We were looking at the sheer mass of stuff in front of us and searching for something about half the size of your pinky.”
Did a voice from beyond help in ashes search?
As the group was starting to lose hope, Mr Gordon’s daughter Sarah claimed to hear a “voice in her head” telling her to “look under the silver watch”.
Sure enough, Mr Gordon saw a broken watch at his feet.
“I lifted it without delay, and there it was.”
Thinking back to the moment the pendant was discovered after searching through tonnes of rubbish, he said: “It was a proper pinch me moment.
“We believe that voice in her head was my mum guiding her. How else were we going to find her?”
Praise for Thurso recycling centre staff
Mr Gordon’s mother is “back with [him] now”, albeit on a stronger chain.
Mr Gordon struggled to put into words how grateful he is to everyone at Thurso recycling centre, especially Colin Gunn, Graham John and Malcolm Simpson.
He said: “I was gobsmacked. You’ve got the relief, you’ve got the joy, you’ve got the gratefulness for those guys helping.
“They could easily have said there was no chance, but for all those guys to be on their hands and knees searching, it was fantastic.
“To everyone else they just take away our waste, they’re forgotten in the background. But they’ve done something very special for me.”
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