MOUNT GREENWOOD — Indigent and unidentified adults were buried Wednesday at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Mount Greenwood along with the remains of 24 unborn children.
The bodies were buried in plain, wooden boxes at the Catholic Cemetery at 2755 W. 111th St. courtesy of the Archdiocese of Chicago, which provided seven plots to Cook County.
Among the adults buried, 34 were the cremated remains of poor people while four of the plain caskets contained the embalmed bodies of people who were unable to be identified, said Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, the county's chief medical examiner.
"We want a dignified disposition," said Arunkumar, who joined several politicians, volunteer funeral directors and cemetery workers at a brief service conducted by the Rev. Lawrence Sullivan.
Sullivan is the pastor at Christ the King Parish in North Beverly and associate director of Catholic Cemeteries for the Chicago Archdiocese. He said a brief eulogy before the caskets were placed in the ground.
"I think as we come here it is as a service to the people in our county," Sullivan said.
The caskets themselves were all marked with small, white cards that included a date of birth, serial number and — in some cases — the name of the person inside. Perhaps the most heartbreaking casket was lined with the names of 24 unborn children.
These fetal remains were all placed in the same casket and sectioned off for each individual. The remains were collected from area hospitals and included miscarriages, abortions and stillborn babies, Arunkumar said.
Other caskets had also been divided into sections for the the cremated remains of poor adults who were left to be buried by the county, she said. Such indigents are held at the morgue for 30 days before being cremated, Arunkumar said.
In a few cases, these bodies are donated as cadavers for medical research with the family's blessing, Arunkumar said. However, mostly the families of these individuals are simply unable to afford a burial service and thus leave it in the hands of the county, she said.
The four unidentified bodies buried Wednesday are put through an extensive process including DNA testing and social media searches to find next of kin. After nearly a year of unsuccessfully attempting to locate a friend or relative, these people are buried by the county, Arunkumar said.
Flowers were placed on the caskets by students from a local mortuary school along with prayer cards from eight funeral directors, who also donated their time by participating in a funeral procession, said Leonard Zielinski of the Cook County Funeral Directors Association.
Those gathered for the service mostly stood in the shade on the warm, sunny day. Sullivan looked out at the crowd and offered some perspective on the what was taking place in the southeast corner of the quiet cemetery.
"Our faith calls us to be of service to our neighbor," Sullivan said. "There is also a sense of joy, knowing that they have been welcomed into God's kingdom."
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