The family of reclusive Swedish actor Greta Garbo respected her wish to be alone to the very end when they secretly buried her ashes in a Stockholm cemetery the day before a public memorial service yesterday.
Ms Garbo's niece and heir, Ms Gray Reisfield, had procrastinated since the death of the film star in New York nine years ago about the timing and location of her burial, seeking to avoid the media spotlight and unable to decide on the most suitable place.
She finally decided last year to bury Ms Garbo in Skogskyrkogar den cemetery in her home city of Stockholm and organised a memorial service for yesterday.
Ms Reisfield and 12 other family members from the United States gathered at the cemetery a day earlier to bury an urn containing Ms Garbo's ashes and say their own farewells in peace.
"It was very dignified, nice and simple, and a long way from the hustle and bustle of the world," a cemetery spokesman, Mr Borje Olsson, told Swedish media. "The only sound was the birds singing."
A few press photographers and camera crews were invited to film the burial from a distance, but otherwise the late afternoon service remained a secret.
"Gray Reisfield was worried that the family would not have a ceremony for themselves," her Swedish spokesman, Mr Gunnar Olin, said. "It had taken her a long time to decide how to handle this as she wanted to avoid any frenzy of media attention."
An hour-long memorial service, televised live nationally yesterday gave Swedes the chance to pay their last respects to the actor, widely remembered for her line, "I want to be alone", in the 1932 film Grand Hotel.