Service will remember the almost forgotten

By Laura Guido • October 1, 2019 1:30 am
Bryan Stucky, Wallin Funeral Home director, reads the names on a new monument for a previously unmarked grave. The Rotary clubs on the island donated $5,000 for the marker engraved with more than 100 names of people who died and were unclaimed. Photo by Laura Guido/Whidbey News-Times
Bryan Stucky, Wallin Funeral Home director, reads the names on a new monument for a previously unmarked grave. The Rotary clubs on the island donated $5,000 for the marker engraved with more than 100 names of people who died and were unclaimed. Photo by Laura Guido/Whidbey News-Times

More than 100 of local history’s forgotten people will be recognized Saturday during a memorial service that, for many, comes decades after their deaths.

When Wallin Funeral Home Director Bryan Stucky discovered the cremated remains of so many people were kept in an unmarked grave at Maple Leaf Cemetery, he decided something needed to be done to memorialize them.

“Not a brick,” Stucky said. “Not a marker. There was nothing there.”

Stucky took his concerns, and an idea to recognize these people, to the Rotary Club of North Whidbey Sunrise, which he serves as president. Bolstered by the membership’s approval, he went to the other Rotary clubs on Whidbey Island, because the people in the unmarked plot came from all over Island County.

“It’s important for us, as a county and as a community, to step up and remember these individuals,” said Stucky.

Combined, the Rotary clubs donated $5,000 for a monument engraved with as many dates and names as the coroner’s office has records for.

The county began using the plot about 10 years ago, according to Stucky.

At the site, there are ashes of people who died in the 1940s through the mid 2000s, many of whom didn’t have surviving family to claim them. They ranged in age of death from stillborn to 90 years old, had no service and were laid to rest under a patch of grass with no indication of their existence.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, Chaplain David Lura will preside over a short service at Maple Leaf Cemetery for these people.

Stucky will also speak on behalf of the Rotary clubs, which will continue to maintain the monument.

The remains of 11 more people will eventually be added by the coroner’s office, and their names will be added to the marker.

Stucky said he doesn’t expect “hundreds” to attend the service, but he hopes some people will come to pay their respects.

“It lets people know that these people lived,” he said. “… It says a lot about a community, how we take care of those that passed on.”

• The service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, at Maple Leaf Cemetery in Oak Harbor.