Many were homeless. Most are now nameless. A few came from families hopeless of having enough money to give their loved ones a decent burial.
The cremated remains of 1,430 down-and-out Los Angeles County residents will be laid to rest Wednesday at a mass grave at the L.A. County Crematory and Cemetery in Boyle Heights.
“This holiday season, many of us are reminded of how fortunate we are to be surrounded by our loved ones,” said Supervisor Don Knabe, who will attend his last pauper’s funeral before retiring Friday after 20 years of representing the 4th District, in a statement.
“These are individuals who, for one reason or another, have no one but the county to provide them with a respectful and dignified burial.”
The simple but solemn ceremony, with prayers conducted in many languages for each of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths, has become an end-of-year ritual at the five-acre potter’s field.
The county has interred unclaimed remains every year since 1896.
The 10:30 a.m. non-denominational burial at the corner of 1st and Lorena streets will honor the indigent and unclaimed who died in 2013.
The Office of Decedent Affairs, which handles cremation and burial for the indigent, generally waits three years for family members time to claim their remains. The cost of cremation can be waived for families facing financial hardship.
The number of Jane and John Does buried at the county graveyard within the past decade has ranged from 1,379 who died in 2012 and interred last year and 1,798 who died in 2006 and interred in 2009.
A couple of days before each ceremony, their ashes are placed in a single mass grave marked with the cremation year.
“Some are homeless. Many are poor. Some have no families to grieve for them,” said Knabe, whose district runs from Marina del Rey to the San Gabriel Valley, on Tuesday. “Regardless of what their status in life was, each one of them mattered.
“We take the opportunity tomorrow to honor their lives.”
