KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A Kalamazoo church is offering a final resting place for unclaimed cremains stored at the morgue that's located inside Western Michigan University's Medical School.
St. Martins of Tours Episcopal Church will bury the cremains of 26 people in its memorial garden in a ceremony called "Claiming the Unclaimed: Cremains Interment 2019."
"They deserve a peaceful, loving end," said Mary Perrin, priest at St Martin of Tours. "Every person should be remembered and recognized and given back to God."
St Martin of Tours, after hearing about another church already performing the service, began offering its garden as a burial site for cremains in 2016.
Perrin said the church first reached out to funeral homes, many of which had unclaimed cremains in need of a home.
So far, the church has buried the ashes of 66 people in its garden, and it recently reached out to the Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner's office.
"I was ecstatic," said Dr. Joyce deJong, medical examiner for Kalamazoo and eleven other counties, including Allegan, Barry, Calhoun, Van Buren and Muskegon. "We try to find family members, and sometimes it's that they just can't afford to have a cremation and they have no resources. They can either feed their family next week or pay to have their uncle cremated."
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