The Ganges River in India is a final resting place for the ashes of loved ones. For those who can’t make the journey, a river in Florida has become a substitute for the funeral tradition.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Ganges River in India is a sacred place in Hindu traditions. People put their loved ones’ ashes in its waters as a final rite. What happens when a family can’t make the trip? Rose Schnabel with WUFT tells the story from Florida.

ROSE SCHNABEL, BYLINE: Growing up in South Africa as an Indian woman during apartheid wasn’t easy for Vasanti Doshi. She was born in 1942. She found comfort in music and sang from a Boy Scout songbook. She especially loved a song about the Suwannee River by Stephen Foster.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SWANEE RIVER”)

BING CROSBY: (Singing) Way down upon the Swanee (ph) River.

SCHNABEL: This Bing Crosby rendition came out in her childhood.

VASANTI DOSHI: Somehow, we just all wanted that song first. Very sad song. But with the sadness comes this hope that things will be better.

SCHNABEL: Today, the original 1851 lyrics are viewed as racist. They depict an enslaved person nostalgic for their days on a plantation. But to Vasanti, now 83, the song meant something else – the chance to be far away from apartheid’s reach. She got that chance after she married in 1970 and eventually moved to Florida after visiting college friends there. One day, her husband, Paresh, entered an auction for a run-down motel in Old Town, Florida, and won. The rooms backed up to a river.

PARESH DOSHI: It was not very visible at that time, you know, because of the overgrown foliage and the trees and all that, but I stepped out to the dock – there was steps going down – to see how it was laid out. And I said, wow. What a spot.

SCHNABEL: He kept the river a secret from his wife, Vasanti, who was angry at his real estate purchase.

V DOSHI: I told him, you cannot buy that property. And he said, you just have to come one time tomorrow.

SCHNABEL: So she did. And it was Paresh who led her to the river.

V DOSHI: So he’s in the front, pulling me, and I didn’t want to go. Went on, on. It took a while till I got to the end.

SCHNABEL: But then she saw it – the Suwannee River.

V DOSHI: (Crying) What God does for us, we have no idea.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER RUSHING)

SCHNABEL: A few years later, when Vasanti’s dad passed away, she invited a dozen Indian families over for a funeral ceremony on the river.

V DOSHI: They were shocked that I was doing that and then started calling me.

SCHNABEL: Their motel has now become a gathering place for families who can’t travel to the Ganges for funerals. Vasudha Narayanan directs the study of Hindu traditions at the University of Florida. She says, Hindus believe sprinkling a loved one’s ashes in the Ganges liberates the soul from the body, and local rivers often become a substitute.

VASUDHA NARAYANAN: They know it’s the Suwannee or the Mississippi. They do think it is infused with the sacrality of the mother of all rivers, which is the River Ganges from India.

SCHNABEL: Vasanti has started calling the Suwannee River her Ganges. People come from over 100 miles for the funeral ceremony. Her daughter Supna gives a demonstration.

(SOUNDBITE OF MATCHES STRIKING)

SUPNA DOSHI: So what we’re doing right now is lighting the lamp to put the boat in the water in memory of anyone who’s passed (vocalizing).

SCHNABEL: The paper boat carries flower petals to make the soul’s journey sweeter.

S DOSHI: (Singing in non-English language).

SCHNABEL: Sometimes families scatter ashes in the water, too, which Florida law doesn’t regulate. But today, Supna just watches the boat drift away in the heart of rural Dixie County, down here, upon the Suwannee River. For NPR News, I’m Rose Schnabel in Old Town, Florida.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.