Hallie Twomey uses Facebook to scatter ashes of adventure-loving son

For three years, a black stone urn containing C.J. Twomey's ashes has sat on a shelf in his parents' home in the US state of Maine, not far from the door he walked out of one beautiful April day just before shooting himself.

Now, his mother is using social media to enlist the help of strangers to scatter his ashes from Massachusetts to Japan in the hope that her adventure-loving son can become part of the world he left behind.

"I don't want him to have to sit in an urn for my benefit for whatever rest of time that we have," Hallie Twomey said. "I wanted to give him something. I'm trying to give him a journey."

It started with a simple request on Facebook to help C.J., who was only 20 when he died, "see the mountains that he never got to climb, see the vast oceans that he would have loved, see tropical beaches and lands far and away".

The post was shared by nearly 100 of her friends, and soon even strangers started offering to scatter C.J.'s ashes in their hometowns, on family vacations or just somewhere beautiful. She started a separate Facebook page called "Scattering C.J.".

The pictures and videos on Facebook tell the story of where C.J. has been. A man scatters his ashes on a beach in Massachusetts. One sprinkles them in the forest in Jamaica, and another off a rocky cliff in Hawaii.

Along with his ashes, Twomey sends a note and a small photo of a smiling C.J., wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt with sunglasses propped up on his head. She asks the recipient to do four things: Think about C.J., think about the people he gave life to through organ donation, tell him that his mum and dad loved him, and tell him that his mum is sorry.