Unclaimed remains of Lorain County residents laid to rest

AMHERST TWP. — On Friday, 51 Lorain County residents were laid to rest, despite the fact their remains were never claimed. The remains were buried in a communal plot in Ridge Hill Memorial Park cemetery in Amherst Township. Their dates of death ranged from the 1970s to August of this year, but they all had two things in common; they had died in Lorain County and their remains had never been claimed. John Dovin of Dovin Funeral and Cremation Specialists in Lorain said that unclaimed remains are a common problem for funeral homes, which have to decide what to do with them. "The state doesn't require us to do this," Dovin said. "After 60 days, they're considered abandoned and we can dispose of them however we wish. We thought that this would be the most respectful way to do it. ... They were a part of our community, they deserve to be at rest." He said that the Greater Lorain Funeral Directors Association used to regularly organize communal burials for members' unclaimed remains, and Friday's ceremony was something of an effort to bring back that tradition. Ridge Hill president Mike Ireland said he began to speak with Dovin about the unclaimed remains they had, and they decided they needed to lay them to rest. "We said why don't we try to at least do something positive here, and the more we talked about it, this seemed like the right thing to do," Ireland said. Through Dovin and the Directors Association, they gathered unclaimed remains from funeral homes throughout the county. Containers holding the ashes of the 51 deceased were placed in a vault and lowered into their collective resting place beneath a tree. The ceremony next to the O Section of Ridge Hill was short and sparsely attended. It was led by Obed Melendez, a life celebrant with Dovin Funeral Home. He asked those in attendance to hold the ground of the communal burial ground as sacred, and to remember those buried there as friends and neighbors. "We come together to honor the lives that our many friends have lived," Melendez said. "They lived well in the world that they made. We come to lay them to rest, to bid a fond farewell." Melendez said after the ceremony that he was proud to have been asked to carry out the group service. "It is an honor to give back to families and to be able to respectfully serve the community in this manner," Melendez said. "Ultimately they are lives, they were people, and for them to be not recalled or remembered is sad. Therefore I think we have the responsibility to honor them for who they were, and not how their life ended." Dovin organized the event while Ridge Hill donated the funerary plot, Matthews Granite donated a marker and Ohio Vault Works provided the vault in which the 51 containers holding the ashes of the deceased were buried. Most of those present were involved in the burial, but a few residents had made their way to pay their respects, including Susan Hill Brown, of Avon. "I just think it's amazing that this was done for these people," Brown said. "It's just wonderful." Brown brought a small American flag, which she said she thought was important to have present in case any of those buried had been veterans. Ireland said Ridge Hill had set aside the portion of land around the first communal grave, and he hoped to have more communal burials in the future. The marker of the grave reads "Gone but not forgotten, these citizens of Lorain County," and also includes a QR code which links those who view it with a list of those buried at the grave. Those buried include: Peter Adeola 05/20/2015 - 05/20/2015 Dale Bare 01/15/1958 - 08/18/2023 Patricia Ann Barnes 02/07/1940 - 09/24/2016 Kathryn Bauer 10/26/1955 - 08/20/2022 Edmund Benz Unknown - 09/06/1997 Natalie Brenner 12/27/1962 - 12/24/2023 Dorothy Brown 03/22/1909 - 02/06/1982 Daniel F. Carpino 01/16/1950 - 08/22/2022 Willie Cash 11/10/1919- 06/10/2009 Jennie Chylinski 11/16/1891 - 06/26/1975 Rose Conley 03/07/1933 - 05/21/2019 Joseph Geri 08/10/1919 - 08/20/1997 John Gregovich 11/25/1954 - 10/22/2020 Joseph Halitzka Jr. 07/16/1957 - 09/09/2021 Joseph Hanley 06/20/1943 - 07/31/2016 Donna Holstein 07/25/1962 - 08/20/2022 Anthony Howard 04/03/1981 - 11/27/2022 Edmund Humphrey 12/01/1951 - 12/18/2021 Homer Jones 08/16/1923 - 10/24/2008 Marc R. Jones 06/23/1957 - 05/18/1991 Mary Jorasch 06/17/1891 - 11/23/1976 Michael Kazan 05/18/1958 - 04/19/2021 Robert Kozar 12/31/1962 - 06/03/2023 Noel Labianco 11/24/1958 - 03/01/2020 Andy K. Lenox 12/29/1965 - 08/05/2021 Frederick Lockwood 08/21/1958 - 11/04/2021 Willie Long 05/10/1904 - 10/13/1998 Betty McGee 02/11/1926 - 10/03/1994 Richard J. Myers 02/21/1960 - 02/04/2020 Al D. Plato 07/20/1964 - 12/23/2021 Eugene H. Portis 11/06/1941 - 08/31/2022 Betty Puma 07/25/1923 - 09/16/1989 Zorianna Rakowsky 02/01/1944 - 09/28/2016 Julia Ray 07/22/1913 - 12/15/1999 Danny Gene Robertson 07/05/1946 - 06/28/1990 Kevin Rousch 04/05/1960 - 02/03/2021 Luis Santos 12/31/1922 - 06/05/1997 Michael L. Smith 07/02/1955 - 03/31/2005 William Stefanik 02/12/1951 - 04/06/2022 Julia Sugerik 01/11/1909 - 03/12/1971 Carol C. Traster 10/09/1924 - 08/05/1998 Betty Mae Turner 04/12/1952 - 12/12/2016 Carolyn Turner 05/26/1963 - 08/31/2019 Frank "Ferry" Elston Vail 09/23/1897 - 12/04/1984 Virginia Vanderhill 07/28/1945 - 01/14/2022 Louis Vanyo 11/26/1965 - 01/11/2024 Annabell Lynn Varndell 08/04/2014 - 08/04/2014 Juanita Wendorff 09/03/1947 - 11/27/2019 Marvin Wigert 03/28/1935 - 12/11/2022 John Wisneski 11/13/1955 - 09/03/2023 Denise E. Wittcop 02/16/1953 - 03/14/2018 Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.