Hawthorne family to be reunited in death

CONCORD, Mass., June 2 (UPI) -- The remains of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne have been sent from London to Concord, Mass., to be buried alongside her husband, author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The body of the daughter of "The Scarlett Letter" and "The House of Seven Gables" author was also dug up and shipped to the United States Thursday for reburial June 26 in the Author's Ridge section of the Sleepy Hollow cemetery, the Times of London reported Friday.

The couple was married for 22 years and after Hawthorne died of cancer in 1864, Sophia took her children and returned to England, where she died in 1871. Their daughter, Una, died in 1877 and was buried near her mother. The other two children returned to the United States.

The family was reunited in death by the Hawthorne's four remaining great-grandchildren, who are all in their 90s.

"It was a wonderfully happy marriage and they never wanted to be separated -- his letters were full of longing when they were -- and this is very fitting after the two being apart for so long," Joan Deming Ensor, 93, told The Times.

The women will be reburied in the family plot June 26 during a public ceremony.