Their community remembers them.
Bernalillo County Thursday morning, gave a dignified farewell to 171 individuals who died recently and whose cremated remains went unclaimed.
The memorial service at Fairview Memorial Park was characterized by reminders that the deceased mattered.
“No one should leave this world unrecognized or unmourned, and today, we all make sure that that doesn’t happen. Robert Noblin Jr. of Director’s Choice Mortuary Services told those in attendance. “It’s a time for us to come together as a community to offer our respect, our dignity and a proper farewell to those who left this world, often without loved ones by their side.”
County Manager Cindy Chavez noted that New Mexico law makes county governments responsible for burying unclaimed or indigent people who pass away within their boundaries. She said Bernalillo County, in choosing to conduct a memorial service, handles that obligation with honor, respect, care and love.
“In many parts of the country, when people pass away like this, their remains are scattered, and there’s no acknowledgement that they were part of our community,” Chavez said, adding that the effort to adequately memorialize the indigent is a reflection of the way county leaders feel about the people they serve.
The service also included hymns by singer and guitarist Larry Gallegos and a eulogy by Pastor Richard Mansfield of New Beginnings Church.
Mansfield said some of the deceased had been fed at the church’s soup kitchen.
“They had no place to call home except Bernalillo County,” he said. “Some of them were drifters, people that went through our town and settled because they found the beauty of not only the beautiful landscape we have, but they found the beauty of the people. They found a community that cared.”
Near the end of the ceremony, county staff read the names of those being remembered. One man sobbed as his wife’s name was read.
Christie Boyer said she was extremely appreciative of the farewell given to her brother, Duane. She said his problems caused him to reject family members’ help, but that she’s comforted by the effort to keep him in the county’s memory.
“I’ll never forget and always love the little brother I grew up with,” Boyer said.
The remembrance is important to the entire community, Noblin said.
“They’re not just statistics, and they’re not just names on a list,” he said. “They were once part of our community. They walked our streets, they shared in our struggles, and they were part of the fabric of life here in Bernalillo County, whether they were our neighbors, our co-workers, or people that we passed on the street, they mattered.”