MODESTO, Calif. — Update:
Latoya Callaway confirmed with ABC10 that the potted tree containing her mother's ashes was returned on Monday.
Original Story:
A Modesto woman is pleading for the safe return of her mother's ashes, which were taken from the front of her home over the weekend.
The ashes were in a personal memorial and mixed into the soil of a potted orange tree sitting in front of her home near Mt. Vernon Drive and Jana Avenue.
"I saw her at night, and then when I last saw her, I didn't see her again. By 10 o'clock in the morning, someone had taken her off of the driveway," Latoya Callaway said.
Her mother passed away two years ago, and Callaway said that she hadn't seen her mother in person for the past eight years. With her mother in Michigan, they hadn't talked much during that timeframe, which Callaway said made the death all the harder because she felt as though she didn't put in enough effort to see her mother.
After her mother passed away, coronavirus restrictions kept her from attending the funeral. The tree that she made as a memorial had her mother's ashes in the soil, and over the years, affectionately became knowns as "tree ma'ma" to her kids.
"I thought that if I planted her in a fruit tree that I could watch her grow, and I could still have that relationship or I can talk to her. So I decided to plant her in the soil and watch her grow," Callaway said.
She described her mother as an amazing person with a huge heart who taught her to be a loving, caring and humble person while growing up.
After the tree was taken, she said all the trinkets and adornments in the pot were left behind. She doesn't know why anyone would take a tree, but she's pleading for whoever took it to bring it back.
"If the pot was what they wanted, they can have the pot, barrel, just bring back the tree," Callaway said.
"It's way more than just a tree for me. I've been growing that tree for a year and a half. And it's, it's my mom, I call it my mom," she added.
Callaway said she intends to file a report regarding the theft to Modesto Police Department.
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