[1]Roses and baby's breath adorn urns of the unclaimed dead at Claquato Cemetery.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
A handful of people joined staff from the Lewis County Coroner’s Office on a spread of browned lawn beneath towering evergreens to pay their respects to the unclaimed dead who were buried this week.
The short memorial service at Claquato Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon was held for 14 individuals who have died in Lewis County over the past 14 years with no relatives to take custody of their bodies.
A red rose lay atop each of the brown-paper wrapped containers holding their ashes as Chaplain Brian Carter offered a brief prayer.
“We lay to rest these forgotten souls knowing full well you have not forgotten them,” Carter said.
Sondra Peckinpaugh came from her home across the street from the cemetery, even though she didn’t know any of the dead.
“I was kind of hoping more would be here,” she said.
Peckinpaugh said she has sometimes in the 40 years she’s resided near the so-called county section of the memorial park “adopted” a grave of an un-named person.
She regularly decorated with flowers a burial spot of a “Jane Doe” found in a river in the 1980s, she said.
Claquato Cemetery Manager Lacie Jendryka said a decision has not been made yet as to exactly how the grave will be marked. It won’t include all the names; a list will kept in cemetery records though, she said.
Many of the plots in what sometimes has been known as the welfare section do have flat headstones.
The burial of multiple cremated remains together in a single concrete liner is the first of its kind in the park, according to Jendryka.
Not all the dead are truly forgotten, some have friends still in the area, just no family who could legally claim their bodies, according to the coroner’s office.
At the Twin City Senior Center in Chehalis during lunchtime announcements prior to the service, site leader Lou Morales passed around a list of those who were set to be buried.
Morales attended the ceremony with her parents, Lewis County Commissioner Ron Averill and his wife Jan Averill.
Three of the names were recognized by seniors, she said. Some there felt sure one of them, Mary Katherine Gibson, still had family in the area, she said.
“A lot of them would have liked to have come,” Morales said.
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For background including the list, read “The unclaimed dead of Lewis County” from Sunday July 29, 2012, here [2]