The remains of more than 40 unclaimed people gather at OKC’s OKC Memorial Service
Tears rolled down the woman’s face as they thought about the man who stuck to marriage and lived in a box in the sun on a local Sunday.
Even though the deceased was a stranger to her, Patricia Bubenik refused to forget his name as she walked to the grave where the man was to be buried at the Resurrection Memorial Cemetery, 7500 W Britton Road.
“I’m going to go home and write his name in my Bible and I’m going to pray for him,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion.
“I didn’t realize that I would be touched like this.”
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Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, was briefed by Deacon Paul Lewis and Sister Barbara Joseph.
More than 40 people in their unclaimed vows in local mortuary throughout 2025 received a Christian burial on November 2, all souls a day. Accompanied by Barbara’s sister Joseph Foley, the remains were interred in a crypt in the Mausoleum at the Cemetery.
A funeral was appropriate for all souls of the day, a day to remember your loved ones that is most commonly seen in Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox traditions. Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley said more as he celebrated a mass of remembrance in the cemetery chapel, before leading the state of the mausoleum.
He encouraged the faithful to pray for “the remains of many men and women, young and old, … Whose remains are gone.”
“He didn’t forget God, he didn’t forget us,” Coakley said.
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‘I wanted to give them a final resting place’
The special intervention was the fourth organized by Foley, the mother superior of the Carmelite sisters of St. There. Foley has always been touched by the plight of those facing homelessness, prompting him to open Pay BJ’s Ofver more than 19 years ago at 819 NW 4.
In 2007, Foley arranged for a homeless man named Stephen Beachboard to be contacted at the Crypt in a resurrection after searching for his family. A year later, Marine family members found an online story in The Oklahoman about his burial at a funeral home in Oklahoma City. His brother and Seaboard-mat-brother-in-law flew from Florida to Oklahoma City to meet and thank Foley for his kindness to their loved one. They also visited the Mausoleum where the Buaceboard was put together after the mass attended by the volunteers of sister BJ who had been in contact with her over the years.
Attendees carry the bodies of the dead for burial in Cryption at the Resurrection Memorial after the All Souls Day.
Foley said he was talking to an employee at a local mortuary in 2022 when he was told that cremated remains of more than a few people were often not claimed.
“He said that sometimes people are not caught or found,” he said. “I think I was thinking a lot in my heart that all these people were just on the shelves in the lectures because they were all unread.
Nanun said that he did not realize how many people were there and the couple had been attacked by different corpses until the first year he organized a number of Christian burials and protected the Crypt of the unwanted one using his own money.
There were 90 people in their places after that.
“I wanted to give them a final resting place,” Foley said.
My religious sister said she couldn’t remember exactly how many people were still connected in 2023, but she remembered that there were quite a few of them. In 2024, the remains of 73 people were trampled. This year, there were 45, including two infants.
Bubenik said she and her husband Jackie went to St Mon Monica Catholic Church in Edmond and went to this year’s All Souls Day commemoration because they used to volunteer for Sister BJ.
Others had their reasons for going heavy and medium.
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A crypt marker with the name “sister of the pantry of the hontry of the holy friends” is prepared to be placed in the Mausoleum at the Resurrection Memorial in Oklahoma City.
Dorothy Kelly said her mother, Dorothy Tramontana, requested that her body be given to the university a few years ago, only that she would be accepted by her mother, or that she might also include the remains of other people. After speaking with a member of the clergy, he made the decision to communicate with the remains during a special mass.
“It was a God thing,” Kelly said.
After being placed in the Mausoleum, Foley was shown to the deceased who had been raised in prayer and gave the dignity of the appropriate burial for the rest of the day. The crypt marker revealed the words “Dade bj’s sister of homeless friends.”
“Their final home is with the Lord in heaven, but this is their resting place until then,” Foley said.
This article originally appeared in The Oklahoman: More than 40 unclaimed bodies laid up in OKC every day
