Claudia Schmitt held a funeral for her mother just three weeks ago, but now has to go through it again: the cemetery forgot to bury her mom's skull.

Schmitt, 48, of Cologne, Germany, noticed the grave error a few days ago when she went to tend her mother’s resting place.

Schmitt and her brother, Harald, immediately reported the skull sighting to cemetery officials who were, as might be expected, embarrassed to death by the morbid mistake.

“Things like this can happen, but we can only apologise. The remains will be buried tomorrow in a separate funeral,” a cemetery spokesman told TheLocal.de.