An 81-year-old US woman missed her own funeral after the mortuary mixed up two bodies.

Edna Lawson died on July 19, but the Texas octogenarian was not in the coffin lowered on top of her World War II veteran husband's at a cemetery last weekend.

Bruce Lawson, Edna's son, knew something was wrong when he went to identify his mother's remains at Mabrie Memorial Mortuary, but they insisted everything was fine.

Though he knew it didn't look like his mother, he was made to believe her appearance had just greatly changed through the embalming process

"Do you think maybe you have the wrong body? Maybe it's someone else back there? And she said we don't make those kind of mistakes."

In his grief Bruce became convinced his beloved mother's appearance had changed through the process of embalming and the family went ahead with the service.

After a memorial at the Pentecostal Missionary Baptist Church a coffin with was supposedly Edna's body was put on top of her husband in a shared plot of a Houston cemetery.

Days later the Lawsons received a phone call from the funeral home saying they had Edna's body in the back.

Bruce returned, was once again asked to identify the body, and said, "now that's my mom."

Edna's three children now have to face the process of memorializing and burying their mother all over again.

The other body, whose identity has not been released, has been exhumed. Her family has been notified of the situation as well.

And the funeral home has apologized, saying, "When Mabrie Memorial Mortuary discovered the mix up, we immediately contacted the affected families, apologized for the error, and took all appropriate steps to rectify the situation.

"We have also taken steps to insure that a similar situation does not happen in the future... We deeply regret that the Lawson family had to endure this temporary delay in properly transitioning their loved one and will do everything we can to make the remainder of their experience comfortable."

But the apology will only go so far for Bruce and the rest of Edna's family, who worry about their mother even after death.

"She wanted a spiritual way to leave this earth but it got robbed from her and her spirit."

- The Daily Mail