Woman Addicted To Licking Husband's ASHES

We've met the lady who eats dryer cloths, the teddy bear mother and the woman with 24-inch nails. There was even an adult baby who sleeps in a cot and wears diapers. TLC's reality TV show, My Strange Addiction, takes a look into the less-than-orthodox compulsive habits of some interesting characters. And, true to form, it has delivered some colourful tales in its second series run. Saving the best for last, the series finale, last night, featured a woman who is so close to the memory of her late husband that she eats his ashes.

 

26-year-old Casie, who was widowed just two months before filming the show, is unable to stop herself from dipping her finger into her husband's urn of ashes and taking a lick of the grey dust.

She says she first tasted the remains of her husband, Shawn, when she transferred the ashes from a temporary cardboard box into a special memorial urn.

 

'Some of it spilled out on my hands. I didn't want to just wipe him away, so I just licked it off my fingers. And here I am today, almost two months later and I can't stop.'

 

Shawn died from a sudden and severe asthma attack. The couple married in 2009 after Casie found 'all she ever wanted in a man.' The programme shows the distraught Casie carrying the urn full of ashes - an unwieldy black box - everywhere she goes. She takes 'him' to the cinema, to the shops and to restaurants. 'I take my husband everywhere. To the grocery store, out shopping...When I go grocery shopping, I buy the things that he likes.' At home, she tailors her domestic chores to suit Shawn's tastes.

Casie says Shawn was all she ever wanted from a man and that her world has fallen apart

Life partner: The urn and ashes go everywhere with new widow Casie

'When I cook, I cook what he likes. I don't eat it, but I cook it for him.'

Despite the habit distressing her family and friends, Casie finds comfort in having his ashes at her side. At one point, she is seen crying, holding the urn close and talking with it: 'Oh baby I miss you.' The series finale documents Casie's enrollment into therapy with the hope of finding a way to end the worrying behaviour. And, though she attracts the bemusement of others, she seems utterly serious about her devotion to the inert remains.

'Some people laugh, they think I'm playing. But I'm serious - I mean that's my husband.'