Kochi, Aug 1 (IANS) The ashes of a German woman who died after living in a hotel here for eight years were Monday immersed in the sea in line with Hindu rituals on her wishes.


A Hindu priest and a dozen well-wishers took part in the ceremony at the Cherai beach near here.

German Elfriede Maria Schmid, 77, died here last month. Her body was kept in a mortuary for about 45 days as the hotel management tried to contact her family.

Sabu Sreedhar, manager of the Chandrika Residency Hotel where the German had lived, told IANS that they did everything according to her will.

He said she paid her bills every 10 days.

"Since she was our loyal guest, all her expenses following her death were taken care of by us," said Sreedhar.

"When we saw her will and we did our best to contact her son, who is a pilot in the US. We were unsuccessful, but we got through to his wife who informed us that she is unable to claim the body," said Sreedhar.

"Her ashes were immersed in the Arabian Sea," said Sreedhar.

The woman had also written in her will that the ashes of her cat should also be immersed with her's.

But the hotel manager said they could not locate the cat's ashes.

According to her will, half of her wealth is for her son and the other half for the tiger reserves in India.