My mother's ashes were delivered yesterday; they are multi-coloured - mainly grey and white as expected but with shards of blue, pink, brown and black flecks. What is this? There was also a bent pin of approximately one inch - was this from the body or the coffin? I realise whoever answers this can only speculate but I would like some hypothesis please. Thank you.

Typically the "coffin" used in cremation is a simple carbdoard box with a plywood base for stiffness. It has no pins or metal harware. After cremation the only things left over are bones plus any metal bits that the deceased may have had in his/her body from medical procedures. If your mother had broken bones or other injuries that required pins, staples, screws etc they would be left over and are supposed to be picked out by hand before the bones are pulverized into the final ash consistency. Perhaps they missed this one inch pin. As for the colors - just a guess but perhaps items like dentures, teeth fillings, joint implants or arterial stents she may have had make for different colors?

I called my cousin, a funeral director, to ask him about this. He said in the U.S. a body is cremated in whatever clothing the family chooses and in a special container, so these things that you found that may not be cremains could be from the clothing, jewelry she was wearing, or even from the container itself. He suggested you call the funeral director for your mother or the crematorium itself to find out specifics for your area and for this cremation.

Thank you for your responses. There weren't any items in her body e.g. pins, that I know of and she would have been naked in the coffin - albeit for a body bag or whatever the crematorium decided upon as she came straight from a hospital morgue. It's a bit creepy to be honest - the not knowing I mean, but I shall take your advice and contact the crematorium on Monday. Thanks so much for getting back to me, both of you. Much appreciated.