No longer forgotten: Honoring unclaimed children in Des Moines
Step inside Hamilton's Funeral Home and the weight of what happens there hits you. Thousands have had loved ones say final goodbyes. And, for nearly three dozen young children, they're finally feeling loved.
"It might be the first time that their names are ever said aloud. You know, a lot of these children weren't even given a first name," Hamilton's Funeral Director Lanae Strovers says.
The ages, gender and circumstances differ.
"It's hard to group them all in to one ... and we don't always know their story," Strovers says.
What they do know is the unclaimed remains of these children, many of them babies, have been sitting on the shelves of local funeral homes for years.
Some of them, decades.
"I really had to sit, and think is this something we want to invite people to, is this something we want to make public? But then I thought have to. Because what if other funeral homes are sitting on the same thing and don't know what to do," Strovers recalls.
Turns out, they'd want to help. Ben Hengesteg is Strover's counterpart at Iles Funeral Home in Des Moines. He says after Strovers reached out regarding the children, they got to work.
"You know, sometimes families wanted to pick up, never did. Sometimes there are people that don't have anybody to claim them. So, it was a matter of doing a lot of research and finding those records, copying those, and making sure that everything was in order that matched the remains that we had in storage," Hengesteg says.
Teamwork turned up 37 of them. And on May 18, they'll be given a proper sendoff at Avon Cemetery in Des Moines.
Watch the video above for the full story.
To find out more about that ceremony and the work the non-profit group 'The Final Salute' is doing to give these kids, Veterans and other civilians who have gone unclaimed a proper burial visit: https://www.facebook.com/thefinalsalute.
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