The Forgotten Dead: Alone in death

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The Forgotten Dead

Alone in death

Tens of thousands die each year in the United States and no one claims their bodies



Urns containing the cremated remains of 13 Maricopa County residents are placed in their resting place at White Tanks Cemetery. (Caitlin O’Hara for The Washington Post)

By Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan
Today at 8:01 a.m. EDT

MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — Twenty miles outside Phoenix in a desolate cemetery, a funeral director opened the door of a black minivan, dusty from the desert dirt. He lifted out the remains of Marjorie Anderson, her ashes inside a plastic urn transported in a cardboard Costco box.

An Episcopal chaplain and a few county workers were on hand for her burial, but nobody was there who knew Anderson, a 51-year-old mother of two. Her urn looked exactly the same as 13 others placed alongside the edge of a freshly dug trench.

Tom Chapman, the chaplain, wore a wide-brim hat for shade in the treeless expanse and prayed. He called out Anderson’s name, and those of five other women and eight men. Not one had a relative or friend to hear him.

“There but for the grace of God we all could be,” Chapman said quietly before turning to leave.

Every week, there is a similar lonesome service at Maricopa County’s White Tanks Cemetery, where a record 551 people were laid to rest last year, part of a nationwide surge of unclaimed bodies.

There are no official statistics about how many unclaimed bodies are buried across America, but a Washington Post investigation that included more than 100 interviews over six months with medical examiners and local officials from Maine to California found that every year tens of thousands of lives end this way.

{snip}



Samaritan Funeral Home director Bryan Wilson carries cremated remains to the burial site at White Tanks Cemetery. (Caitlin O’Hara for The Washington Post)

{snip}



Samaritan Funeral Home director Bryan Wilson looks at Anderson's burial site at White Tanks Cemetery. (Caitlin O’Hara for The Washington Post)

By Mary Jordan
Mary Jordan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent currently writing about politics. She spent 14 years as a Washington Post foreign correspondent based in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Twitter https://twitter.com/marycjordan

By Kevin Sullivan
Kevin Sullivan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior correspondent who covers national and international affairs. He was previously The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. Twitter https://twitter.com/sullivank

[Corgigal]

1. So sad.

I remember reading about David Ruffin, a lead singer of The Temptations, and how no one claimed him. He turned to drugs and I guess most people turned away. Thought it was so sad that no one cared at all. Or they can’t afford a service. Either way, we humans should do better.

[marble falls]

4. For what it's worth about a tragic story about a real talent - his children reclaimed his body ...

... within four days of his death.

[Corgigal]

5. Thank you,

I don’t remember where I heard it, probably some tv show.

That actually makes me feel better. Thanks again.

[marble falls]

6. I've read that, too. Than I read of the turnout to his memorial, Michael Jacson paid for it ...

... the Temptations sang at it. He was loved and missed. He was working till the day he died. The "nobody cares" meme is a click bait bait.

[MFM008]

2. My parents

In urns in livingroom
Still looked after...
It will be up to the last survivor to decide what to do with all the rest .
2 down 4 to go...

[XanaDUer2]

3. Aren't there professional mourners in New Orleans?

nt