What lay inside a box of ashes certainly used to be a person, but one who had now been reduced to an object. A person-object, if you will. No culture, not even mine, is indifferent to human remains. Kin or foe, valorized or denied, dehumanized or objectified, we still have to come to some decision about what to do with what remains. And so, I am obliged, once more, to find a place for my father in my life.