Watch above: Community and faith-based organizations leaders speak at this year's "Honoring the Departed" ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery. The ceremony is a funeral service for Alachua County decedents who were indigent, unclaimed or unknown.
A steady drizzle fell as a small crowd gathered at Evergreen Cemetery for a special funeral service Thursday afternoon.
Unlike most services, the roughly 30 attendees were not family or loved ones of the deceased. They came to pay their last respects to community members they did not know and who otherwise may not have had a formal service.
Just as the opening remarks were about to begin, the rain stopped. The sun broke through the overcast sky, warm and welcoming.
The annual ceremony, “Honoring the Departed,” memorializes individuals who passed away in Alachua County and who were unclaimed, abandoned or unknown. This year’s memorial honored 58 people who were laid to rest at Evergreen Cemetery in 2023.
“We stand together as their community, ensuring their lives are remembered,” said Satori Days, manager of the county’s Community Stabilization Program, which arranges the ceremony. “Let our presence here today be a testament to their worth and promise that no one is ever truly alone.”
Leaders from local faith-based organizations read aloud prayers and poems and played music.
The Rev. Marisa Gertz of the Trinity United Methodist Church gave the opening prayer.
“May we be comforted by the love that transcends all boundaries,” she said, “whether in our faith, our background or our traditions.”
Michael Bannister and Barbara Herbert, of the Baha'i Spiritual Assembly of Gainesville, read aloud the names of the decedents. Days gently rang a bell after each name to individually honor them.
“I came because I wanted to be present for the memory of these people,” said Lee Wilberschied, who is part of the Gateless Gate Zen Center and was one of the first in the audience to arrive. “It’s important that they are honored and remembered.”
Local government leaders were present, too.
“These were people that lived in our community,” said County Commissioner Mary Alford, who in 2021 led the initiative to create the ceremony. “These were people we passed on our streets. These are people that some of us work to feed and clothe and take care of.
“And to recognize their passing, to give them the dignity that they deserve as people, is something that is very important to me personally,” she said.
Many of the decedents honored were homeless.
Alford said her family’s history of working with the homeless inspired her to ask that service be created as one of her first acts as a commissioner.
“It’s such a great opportunity to talk about possible acts of service to help the most vulnerable people in our community,” she said.
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward attended and reflected on the gathering’s purpose.
“It’s our most basic duty to those who have gone on to make sure that their remains are respected,” he said, “to make sure that we say, ‘You were here, and you mattered.’”
The “Honoring the Departed” ceremony is connected to Alachua County’s Indigent Burial and Cremation program. Each county in Florida is required by state law to provide a burial or cremation for unclaimed or indigent people who die in the county. A maximum of $125,000 is dedicated to the program in the county’s annual budget, according to Sarai Cabrera, director of the county’s Division of Social Services.
Although no loved ones of the decedents spoke at the ceremony, Alford said friends and family in the past have told her how much the service meant to them.
“It is very meaningful to know that their family member or their friend were able to have a ceremony and bring some dignity to their death process,” she said.