For the second year in a row, a memorial for unclaimed neighbors in Grand Rapids will take place at the city’s
Oak Grove Cemetery, 2531 Kalamazoo Ave. SE.
Anyone, of any age, is invited to come to the cemetery from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, to pay their respects. Last year’s event saw families with children, faith workers, Native elders, and others.
“We are honoring Grand Rapids neighbors who have gone unclaimed, primarily folks who were unhoused, but also folks whose families didn't have the financial means to do a burial,” says Sarah Sun, death care worker and organizer of the event.
When talking with Grand Rapids’ cemetery groundskeepers, Sun discovered that while many of Grand Rapids’ cemeteries have unmarked graves, the majority of Grand Rapids unclaimed dead are interred at Oak Grove.
“My understanding is that there used to be one or two people here and there in between other people's family plots where there was a little bit of room,” Sun says. “Then one of the groundskeepers said that it did not make sense to have people all over the place, all completely unmarked.”
That observation led to a large area at Oak Grove being designated for unclaimed dead about 10 years ago, and nearly 400 people have been buried there since.
Walking through the cemetery, the space simply seems empty as the graves are unmarked.
“I have had neighbors and friends who were unhoused, and I wondered where they went when they died. So, I looked into it — and it took a long time for me to figure it out,” Sun says. “Folks have already been done a disservice, if they are unhoused, based on so many different factors: structural inequities, the cost of housing, and whatever else. Then they're buried, but no markers, no public services. It really shocked me that there had never been a memorial.”
Creating an accessible record
Names of the dead buried at Oak Grove are listed in a record book. Sun has mounted a campaign to digitize the list and make it available via QR code at the cemetery or via the city’s website.
“If there was a fire, the names would be gone. If all the names in the book can be digitized, people can then see the names of people who are buried there. Families or friends could reconnect,” Sun says. “When we are at the ceremony, we are going to read the names aloud. We think it's important to speak the people's names aloud.”
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Volunteers Octavia Mingerink, Michael Smooth, and Angela Smith at the 2024 memorial.
The one-hour event will start with a brief welcome and introduction to the Oak Grove Memorial. Next, people attending will lay fresh flowers on the grass above the unmarked graves. Sun will read the names. Then, an open time for sharing will give those attending the opportunity to share words, a song, or a prayer.
“We ask that people bring fresh flowers if they're able. But we also did get some donations of fresh flowers,” Sun says. “The groundskeepers will be there, so they'll direct us to the area.”
To conclude, people will write out wishes, thoughts or prayers for their unclaimed neighbors and tie them to a fruit tree that Sun is having planted.
“Then, we'll have some action steps to prompt the city to make the graves a little more visible,” she says.
Sun has also hired a person to construct a
wind phone. The first wind phone was devised in Japan in 2011. Itaru Sasaki put an old phone booth in his garden, fitted it with an obsolete rotary phone, and used it to speak to his cousin who had died from cancer. As of August, 459 wind phones have been mapped around the world on the
My Wind Phone website.
“I can't claim to know what folks would want. So we just do our best to honor and be pretty broad,” Sun says. “Every year, we hope it grows. Maybe someone else will take it on, and they can turn it into something different.”
Oak Grove Cemetery is accessible via Kalamazoo Avenue and is adjacent to Mackay-Jaycees Park. Volunteers will direct attendees to parking and the area where the unclaimed dead are buried.