By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – When Alicia Wolfe read in the news last Saturday Manabu Ishikawa was going to be buried with two strangers, as one of three unclaimed individuals from the county coroner’s office, she felt compelled to visit his grave in Chehalis.
The Winlock woman didn’t know him, but had met him briefly before he died this summer.
When she checked Ishikawa in at a Centralia motel in June, she thought his name sounded Japanese and asked about it, she said.
“He said he was first generation American,” Wolfe said. “I said oh, my husband’s mother is also.”
[1]Manabu Ishikawa 1964 – 2013
He smiled at her comment, went to his room and she never talked to him again, she said.
The ceremony on Saturday morning at Pioneer Cemetery along Jackson Highway in Chehalis was organized by the Lewis County Coroner’s Office. The final resting place for three sets of unclaimed cremated remains was gifted by cemetery owners John and Marie Panesko.
Wolfe was really disappointed she didn’t learn about it sooner, so she could attend, she said.
“I’m not sure why a stranger passing away has hit me so hard,” she said.
The 28-year-old woman said she’s worked in the industry most of her adult life and it’s not the first time she’s experienced the death at work of a guest; she’s accepted it as part of her job, she said.
But Ishikawa is someone she’s thought about more than usual. She couldn’t get it out of her mind over the weekend that his family obviously didn’t know where he was, where he was laid to rest.
Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said all he knew was Ishikawa was 49 years old and a transient person from Grass Valley, California. He said he tried and simply could not locate any relatives.
The remembrance with a chaplain offering prayers on Saturday took place alongside the lawned property inhabited with the remains of more than 300 individuals. It’s historically been a place for those no one else wanted, such as some in unmarked graves who died at the local tuberculosis sanatorium and even a local criminal who met his end through vigilante justice, the nine attendees were told, according to McLeod.
Meanwhile, Wolfe began searching and found a Facebook page for the stranger. One of his friends had posted last month they knew he died, but were trying to account for his whereabouts, she said.
“From what I could gather, they searched social security death records, and learned he had died June 5, but didn’t have any more details,” she said.
Wolfe messaged one of his friends, offering her condolences and explaining Ishikawa’s remains were in Lewis County and he’d been buried, but she would bring him flowers And she didn’t hear back.
Early this week, Wolfe took a bouquet to the hillside graveyard.
So when she ran into John Panesko to ask him to show her the plot, she was somewhat happy to learn the actual burial was rescheduled for yesterday. It was her day off work, so she could be there, she thought.
She messaged Ishikawa’s friend again, to share the news he hadn’t been buried yet, she said.
Finally, on Wednesday, she heard back.
“She said, you’re kidding me, his family loves him very much,” Wolfe said. “They thought he was in Portland or California. You have to go there and tell them not to bury him.”
She did.
Panesko has gotten a phone call from Ishikawa’s sister and an email from his mother in Japan. Ishikawa’s urn has been returned to coroner’s office where it waits to be reunited with his family.
Wolfe spoke to his mother yesterday.
“She called me and told me a little bit about Manabu,” she said.
Wolfe learned he went to music school in California in the 1980s.
“I guess he was like a free spirit, he did what he wanted,” she said. “He traveled around, did as he pleased. He played the clarinet.”
Even though she didn’t actually know, his mother felt he had died, Wolfe said.
His mother told Wolfe her son had a heart condition and chose against medical advice about four years ago not to seek medical intervention.
“She said he believed in God, she said, Manabu’s God is powerful,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe still doesn’t know what he was doing in Centralia.
His mother had a final request.
“She said, I have one more question for you: ‘Manibu had a dog, Swale, and she was special to Manibu and very special to me, and I would like you to find her.”
Wolfe said she knew Centralia police took custody of Ishikawa’s dog upon his death. She made phone calls and learned Swale was taken to the Lewis County Animal Shelter and probably adopted out, she said.
Earlier today, she was waiting and hoping once the new owners were given her phone number from the shelter and information about the situation, she might be able to fulfill the mother’s request.
Tonight, she learned Swale died a few months ago.
Ishikawa’s Facebook page lists his occupation as janitor at nearest pond; he has 493 Facebook friends.