Tears trickled down the girl’s face as she considered the person whose cremated stays she carried in a field on a sunny Sunday morning at a neighborhood cemetery.
Although the deceased was a stranger to her, Patricia Bubenik refused to neglect his identify as she walked to the crypt the place the person was to be interred at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery, 7500 W Britton Highway.
“I’ll go residence and write his identify in my Bible and I’ll pray for him,” she mentioned, her voice quivering with emotion.
“I did not understand I used to be going to be so touched by this.”
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Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, flanked by Deacon Paul Lewis and Sister Barbara Joseph Foley, leads a prayer on All Souls Day close to a mausoleum at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery.
Greater than 40 individuals whose stays went unclaimed at native mortuaries all through 2025 acquired a Christian burial on Nov. 2, All Souls Day. Coordinated by Sister Barbara Joseph Foley, the stays had been interred in a crypt at a mausoleum on the cemetery.
The burial was becoming on All Souls Day, a day of remembrance for deceased family members that’s significantly noticed in Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox religion traditions. Oklahoma Metropolis Archbishop Paul S. Coakley mentioned as a lot as he celebrated a Mass of Remembrance at a cemetery chapel, earlier than main a processional to the mausoleum.
He inspired the devoted to hope for the “stays of dozens of women and men, younger and previous, … whose stays have gone unclaimed, unacknowledged.”
“Not forgotten by God, not forgotten by us,” Coakley mentioned.
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‘I needed to offer them a remaining resting place’
The particular interment was the fourth coordinated by Foley, mom superior of the Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese. Foley has all the time been touched by the plight of these experiencing homelessness, spurring her to open Sister BJ’s Pantry greater than 19 years in the past at 819 NW 4.
In 2007, Foley organized for a homeless man named Stephen Beachboard to be interred in a crypt at Resurrection Cemetery after looking out in useless for his household. A 12 months later, Beachboard’s relations discovered a web based story in The Oklahoman about their liked one’s burial in Oklahoma Metropolis. Beachboard’s brother and sister-in-law traveled from Florida to Oklahoma Metropolis to fulfill and thank Foley for her kindness to their liked one. In addition they visited the mausoleum the place Beachboard was interred after a Mass attended by Sister BJ’s Pantry volunteers who had interacted with him over time.
Attendees carry cremated stays for burial in a crypt at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery after an All Souls Day Mass.
Foley mentioned she was speaking to a workers member at a neighborhood mortuary in 2022 when she was instructed that the cremated stays of various individuals typically stay unclaimed.
“He mentioned generally individuals do not get picked up or they do not declare them,” she mentioned. “I suppose I used to be pondering in my coronary heart rather a lot that every one these individuals had been simply on cabinets in mortuaries as a result of there are all unclaimed. After which there are additionally individuals who had been homeless, that had no household that and so they type of find yourself there, too.”
The nun mentioned she did not understand how many individuals there have been whose cremated stays had been unclaimed at totally different mortuaries till that first 12 months she organized a Mass of Christian burial and secured a crypt for the unclaimed stays utilizing her personal funds.
There have been 90 individuals whose stays had been interred that first 12 months.
“I needed to offer them a remaining resting place,” Foley mentioned.
The spiritual sister mentioned she couldn’t keep in mind precisely what number of people’ stays had been interred in 2023, however she did keep in mind there have been fewer of them. In 2024, the stays of 73 individuals had been interred. This 12 months, there have been 45, together with two infants.
Bubenik mentioned she and her husband Jackie attended St. Monica Catholic Church in Edmond and attended this 12 months’s Mass of Remembrance on All Souls Day as a result of that they had been Sister BJ’s Pantry volunteers.
Others had their very own causes for attending the Mass and interment.
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A crypt marker that includes the phrases “Sister BJ’s Pantry Homeless Pals” is ready for placement at a mausoleum at Resurrection Memorial Cemetery in Oklahoma Metropolis.
Dorothy Kelly mentioned her mom Dorothy Tramontana had requested that her physique be given to an out-of-state college for analysis upon her demise in 1988. Kelly mentioned she finally acquired her mom’s cremated stays again from the college a couple of years in the past, solely to be taught by way of an legal professional that the stays she was given is perhaps her mom’s completely, or may need additionally included the stays of different people. After speaking to a member of the clergy, she made the choice to inter the stays through the particular Mass.
“It was a God factor,” Kelly mentioned.
After the interment on the mausoleum, Foley mirrored on the deceased who had been lifted up in prayer and given the dignity of a correct interment on this All Souls Day. The crypt marker featured the phrases “Sister BJ’s Pantry Homeless Pals.”
“Their remaining house is with the Lord in heaven, however that is their resting place till then,” Foley mentioned.
This text initially appeared on Oklahoman: Greater than 40 unclaimed stays laid to relaxation in OKC on All Souls Day