Cemetery workers lower a casket containing a body of an indigent person held at the Cook County Morgue. Seventeen adults and 16 unborn babies were buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago on June 5. Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of Chicago offered up to 300 graves to help clear the backlog of remains waiting for burial at the Cook County Morgue. (Karen Callaway / Catholic New World)
Catholic Cemeteries buried 17 adults and 60 unborn babies on June 5 at Mount Olivet Cemetery in its seventh such burial of unclaimed bodies from the Cook County Morgue. Back in early 2012 when the county Medical Examiner’s Office reported a backlog of more than 300 bodies in storage, more than its capacity, Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago offered the county 300 graves free of charge. The first such burial at Mount Olivet (2755 W. 111th St.) took place in May 2012. Indigent means that the deceased could not afford to pay for his or her own burial or their family could not pay. In some cases, no families could be found. In Cook County, unborn babies are still considered human remains and must be buried. Other counties consider them medical waste and dispose of them. The 60 unborn babies were buried in three fetal caskets June 5. All of the graves will remain unmarked unless families provide markers. Out of the 300 graves initially offered by Catholic Cemeteries, 135 have been used. Funeral directors donate their time and services to go and pick up the simple wooden caskets at the morgue and deliver them to the Southwest Side cemetery, where Catholic Cemeteries provides a short grave-side prayer service. The directors receive continuing education credit the first time they participate. Laura Sambrano from Warren Funeral Home in Gurnee made her third trip to Mount Olivet on June 5. She says she donates her time “because I care about people.” “They are still a life that was lived and you still want to give them dignity,” Sambrano said. She transported the body of Grace Bauer, who died in February. She stayed with Grace until her grave was filled in with dirt by cemetery workers. The Cook County Funeral Directors Association organizes the volunteers to transport the men, women and babies. If they didn’t, the bodies would be transported all at once in a storage truck. Roland Weiss of Evanston Funeral and Cremation is treasurer of the association and helps coordinate the directors. He said he has a long list of those wanting to volunteer for the burials. The organization is planning ways they can continue to assist in burying the indigent from Cook County Morgue after the 300 graves donated by Catholic Cemeteries are filled.