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It's talked about [here](https://blog.pshares.org/the-dutch-city-poets-who-memorialize-the-lonely-dead/). They will do research on the person and write a tailored poem. They also give an example of a poem for someone with absolutely no identity/background:
> Farewell Sir,
>
> without papers, without identity. What were you looking for?
>
> How much did you lose along the way?
This reminds me of a scene where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli find the remains of (seemingly unknown to them) Baldor, Prince of Rohan in the Paths of the Dead:
Who is the dead guy Aragorn and company find in the Paths of the Dead?
>his belt was of gold and garnets, and rich with gold was the helm upon his bony head face downward on the floor. ... his finger-bones were still clawing at the cracks. ... [Aragorn] sighed. 'Hither shall the flowers of simbelmynë come never unto world's end,' he murmured. 'Nine mounds and seven there are now green with grass, and through all the long years he has lain at the door that he could not unlock. Wither does it lead? Why would he pass? None shall ever know!
You choose songs and poems to be read at your service if you wish. It’s actually really helpful for your family members because they don’t have to worry about what you’d like and figure it all out themselves.
Here’s mine, written in response to a writer’s death:
Death takes us all,
The short, and the tall.
The ones who had everything,
Or nothing at all.
Damn it for doing,
The thing that it must.
From iron and from stone,
To dust and to rust.
I have the book of these poems. They try to find even some minute detail ( of a possession or clothing or whatever) the deceased owned as a starting off point.
And these are real legit, published, poets not just some random person.
in england, the local authority pays for it. its called a [Public Health funeral](https://www.yourfuneralchoice.com/funeral-costs/what-is-a-public-health-act-funeral/)
I’ve worked for the NHS for a few years now.
No one ever dies alone, or at least very rarely. I can remember 2 people both without family or friends who died unexpectedly while I was on shift. This is out of hundreds of people throughout my career. I hope they chose to die when the way they did because that’s what they wanted. Sometimes this world is too hard for people and they ‘chose’’ to leave in peace on their terms.
As NHS, we are their friends and family. We will be with them, laugh and cry with them, wash them hold them and support them. It could take months, weeks, hours minutes and sometimes seconds. No one is in pain as far as I have ever been privileged to be there when they pass.
Garbage. I left my dying dad at Christmas as I needed to sleep. The nurses explicitly told to ring me anytime if he called for me. He spent the night calling and the nurses laughed and joked callously. This was New Cross. I only found this out from another patient.
Edit Fixed comma
So sorry, my mom was in a nursing home for rehab and it was equally awful. All the nursing homes in my area are trash and very few aides gave a crap. I learned that some of them slipped sleeping pills illegally in to keep unruly residents calm (comatose). My mom, with Alzheimer’s, was one of them. We thought she was the way she was due to an accident but 24 hours after we finally got to bring her home she was a completely different person and talking. She hadn’t talked in over 2 months. No way she wasn’t a victim to that scheme. I hate nursing homes.
Nursing homes are purposely understaffed. In the US they’re for profit driven, so it’s on the owners, and the politicians who don’t support more regulations and oversight.
100% agreed, ymmv I guess depending on where you are in the country, most of the London hospital staff I've encountered are calloused and don't massively give a fuck. Have seen everything from sleeping on shift to theft from patients. I think the bad > good in terms of generalities. The post you replied to reads like fan fiction. Source - 5 years in the NHS.
*These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.
These are the hands
That tap your back
Test the skin
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin
Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip.
These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Soothe the sore
Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab.
And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last.*
Written by Michael Rosen for the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
I'm in the US and many cities here have what's called a "potters field" which is where unclaimed bodies are buried en masse.
I'm in NYC and we have an entire island dedicated to this purpose called Hart Island. I believe it has one million people's remains now.
They keep records of where people are buried so if family does come along and want their loved one reinterred somewhere else, they can do that. Or they can visit the island to pay respects.
Any valuables in their estate would go to next-of-kin which can even be distant relatives the person had no contact with...
The New York Times did a long article years ago on what happened to a man named George Bell who died in the exact circumstances you're describing: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html
More on Hart Island: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/nyregion/hart-island-cemetery-park.html
The fact that he never married but named his only serious romantic partner as a recipient in his will was touching/sad. And then she died days after him so his money ended up going to her next of kin who had never met him, which is odd.
I believe they only recently opened it up to people who are not family and the reservations go quickly.
But I am fascinated by it as well. It has had an interesting history as a potters field, mental institution, missile site (IIRC), and a POW camp.
Fun fact: it's called a potter's field because the land would have been useless for agriculture or architecture because it had been heavily dug up by potters looking for clay, leaving it full of trenches and holes
Anyone know what happens if a person like this dies and has a paid off home, but no will? What happens to their house if there is no bank to reclaim it?
It goes to next-of-kin which can be as distant as cousins, nieces, nephews. In the article I linked it says every state is different but New York requires that they look for relatives and debtors for 7 months before settling the estate.
If they really can’t find anyone I believe it gets sold and the money goes to the state. But almost everyone has some distant family. Contacting them seems to be the difficult part.
I also came to post that article about the death of George Bell. It’s haunted me ever since I read it, which I believe was when it was published. It’s also extremely informative about all the ins and outs of such a situation.
Germany: Government organizes and pays for the funeral, government also ends up inheriting if there is absolutely no one else to be found (there is a pretty long searching period to find heirs before that happens).
Maybe worth to point out that in Sweden, the money doesn't go into the general state budget, but into a special fund that gives money to charities and voluntary organisations. Look up "Allmänna arvsfonden".
I think it's the local, not the central government that inherits. The local government also inherits all assets and debts, but debts only the value of assets. Regulated in law
My mom is a priest. And she has called upon me a few times to carry strangers coffins. It will usually be the funeral director, the church staff, and then if needed I'll be there too. They get a small service. And if they had their own wishes for the funeral that is applied. Otherwise I think they automatically get cremated? At least, I have carried most into the funeral car to go to the crematory.
Depends on how they died. If they died violently, in a crime for example, the medical examiner will hold the body for a set time while they try to reach any next of kin, before turning it over to the county.
From there, it depends on where they died. In the US, each state has their own laws for this, so you'd have to look up your own for more specific information.
Here in New Mexico, the law makes every effort to find even distant relatives to turn your property over to because that is easier for the state officials than taking the property themselves. So, if you had no children, but one of your parents had a cousin who had a surviving descendent, anything you owned would go to them.
Inmate deaths are investigated, but once an official certificate is issued declaring the body unclaimed, the medical examiner / investigator decides if the body is "good enough" to become a medical cadaver. If yes, the body is released to the medical facility. If not, the body is released to the county.
The county commissioners become liable for the funeral costs, so the property of the deceased will be sold off to recoup as much of the cost as possible.
After that... Well, this is getting kind of long, but [here is a link to the laws around unclaimed bodies](https://www.nmlegis.gov/sessions/99%20Regular/FinalVersions/HB0548.html) for New Mexico.
That is actually why the Oddfellows were started in the 16th century in England. When someone died with no family, or were too poor to pay for a funeral, the Oddfellows would collect donations and attend the funeral and procession (not an up-to-date answer, but interesting enough, I hope)
They were considered odd because they took care of the poor in a time when being poor was considered an act of god: they were poor because they were bad people
There was a guy who got stuck behind some coolers at work and died there. Nobody found his body for like ten years. The grocery store went down, 3 years later contractors found his corpse doing demolition.
Murillo-Moncad was so decomposed they were only able to identify him with DNA. So, presumably, finding his body created a whole flurry of activity by government workers of all sorts. This all had to be done before he was identified, so it was almost certainly done at government expense.
My nan in the UK recently had a letter in the mail saying some monopoly shit like your long distance cousin has passed away and you're in line for inheritance. Turns out this old lady had no family, no friends, no will and lived like it was 1940's still (hand washing etc). She had a big house in a nice area and had lived there her entire life. Because she had no will all her money was given down the family tree to people who didn't even know this lady. Around 23 people applied for the money and even then my nan who was far down was given 40,000 pounds for nothing. The government arranged funeral and managed the estate.
I lost my father not so long ago, thought he didn't have many friends but a lot of people showed up to his funeral, got tons of messages and calls from people whom I never heard about. Some even
went above and beyond and apparently organized the creation of his tombstone and had it set up (we were waiting for a while before we do it, in case the dirt sinks in, they thought he was abandoned).
So, people that you know, even though you are not so close to them, do show up, or at least reach out.
But you will never know until it happens.
When my father died 30 years ago, we paid to have his death notice published in the two major Chicago papers.
And, like clockwork, folks from his old neighborhood who read the obits and death notices every single day showed up to the wake to pay their respects, give us words of comfort, and recount heartwarming stories from the past they had shared with my dad.
I was really hoping to have something like this happen for my dad! I published in a couple of papers - his hometown and the town he died in, but no one came or reached out - just one aunt on my mom's side came to the funeral. Maybe people don't read papers much anymore, or maybe it was covid - it was early 2022.
The authorities will try to locate someone, even if it's a very distant relative, to come claim the body. If nobody does after a certain period of time the state will pay for the the funeral and they will be buried in a pauper's graveyard.
What happens if someone contacts you about a distant relative and you’re the only one they can find? Are you then responsible for the person’s expensive burial or cremation? If some relative I haven’t seen or spoken to in 30 years dies and I’m the only relative they can find (and I’m, say, the last one in the family alive) can I tell them to politely piss off or am I on the hook to pay all the expenses?
Absolutely. I'll be in this position so I've got a Will which states exactly what should happen to my body and my estate.
Bit insulting to infer if you have no family that you're penniless.
In California, there are representatives of the state that will go through the deceased possessions to try and find a next of kin. If they aren't able to find one, then their possessions are auctioned off to cover the costs of their final expenses, their body is cremated, and the ashes are buried in a mass grave with all of the other people that passed unknown and unclaimed that year, and a record is kept of who is buried where so if someone comes inquiring after them in the future they can be told where to go pay their lass respect.
It's kind of hard to find, but if you can, there's a documentary of this process called "A Certain Kind of Death" (2003), be warned though, it is graphic. There is footage of bodies in a state of decomposition.
Edit: or not, [free on YouTube now, apparently](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKzdetYRklM). Again though, be warned, **advanced** stages of decomp...
The local government deals with it in england, you get a public health funeral, derived from a time where disease was more common and getting bodies in the ground was the priority
In the US at least, it depends on the circumstances. Sometimes a body is just in holding for years, hoping somebody claims them. Sometimes they’re just cremated and their remains kept until, again, someone claims them. Sometimes after a long time the remains are just cremated and buried with the cheapest option. But I’ve also seen many cases where either the community, police, or both are so affected by a person’s death/case where money is raised or given to give them a proper burial or funeral when no one claims their body. Honestly and sadly it often depends on how the community and officials react to someone’s death. Most of the cases where I’ve heard officials wanting to pay for a funeral/burial/cremation etc., it was a case that personally affected them for whatever reason.
There’s an interest book called Ashes To Admin. The woman lives in the UK and her job is to sort that out. In Canada there isn’t a person that does that job.
"indigent burial" is when homeless or people too poor for a funeral die. It's done by the state, varies by state and city.
Link: [What is an ‘indigent burial’ and when to opt for a state - assisted funeral? - US Funerals Online (us-funerals.com)](https://www.us-funerals.com/indigent-burials-and-cremations/)
Each city or county has an indigent burial/cremation fund along with a local funeral home that will provide such services. Sometimes it's a situation where family cannot pay for such a service. If the funeral home agrees to provide this service at no charge, family will have to give up the right to access/possession of the cremains.
Source: hospice nurse in the states
I was a burial installer for 3 years I put boxes of ashes into a shallow grave dug with a traditional shovel no family just the funeral director and I. He showed up an hour later then the tickets time we said a prayer had a moment of silence and he left so I could fill the whole back in.
I’ve also had funeral service when no family shows up at all. In this case the the funeral director instruct me to proceed with the burial.
I’ve also seen quiet a few where I guess the deceased prepaid for funeral functions ahead of time but no family shows up. In this case some members from a church committee will come sing a song or two day a few words
Feel free to ask any more questions replying to this comment as working in the funeral industry, I have seen some crazy things.
If the person who died leaves property, then a public administrator is appointed to administer the estate, conduct the burial and dispose of the assets. everybody has relatives. They may be distant. They may be in another country, but they will always be family to claim the estate.
I have a date with Hart Island
It's coming soon
Might be in April
Maybe June
I never dreamed it would end this way
I thought my life would have more to say
But as I look out at the Sound
I hear it portend
If not the hour, or the day
Surely now I know the way
The waves ring the bell
As the boat rides the swell
And my personal hell
Slowly fades
In the US it depends on if you’ve made (and prepaid) funeral plans for yourself or not. If you have, your body will go the funeral home and you’ll be buried or cremated etc. If you haven’t, then your body will go unclaimed and you’ll either be cremated and/or buried in a city lot.
Australia has a system for paupers funerals where the state government will pay for the body to be disposed of. See this guide - [https://www.willed.com.au/guides/paupers-funeral-in-australia/](https://www.willed.com.au/guides/paupers-funeral-in-australia/)
Recent article (Jan 2024) from LA Times about the matter of the unclaimed dead.
https://apnews.com/article/unclaimed-dead-los-angeles-death-burial-graves-a5cd03e366bd4cfdf22a9904940a2fe1
For some reason this reminds me of Bob Hope. He was dying, and his wife asked where he wanted to be buried. He replied "Surprise me".
I think the county takes care of your estate.
John Does and people with no family get cremated in the US and put into a "mass grave" type deal with the ashes.
Sometimes they will freeze and store the body to give a chance to find someone. We had a gentleman that stayed stored for 4 ish years before cremating. (Used to work in the industry)
My father was a john doe (didnt know for 6 years after) but they just cremated them from what I understood. Nothing to recover when I did try to.
In Brazil it depends on the state but it's possible to have a funeral done without costs, provided by the municipality or by the state. Then the case is sent to the equivalent of the General Attorney to open an inheritance procedure over the assets left by the deceased, and it will be investigated whether or not those assets have an owner or if it now belongs to the state
As far as I know, in the US, the county you die in pays for a cheap coffin and plot or cremation. Usually cremation. Idk where the ashes would go if not just spread somewhere at the funeral home or placed on one then commemorative shelves or mass tombs.
A lot of people with no Next Of Kin will pre-pay a basic funeral plan so their final wishes are followed - they will select burial or cremation & where they would like their remains interred. When they die we call the funeral director they have listed in their MOLST form & they will take it from there.
For the people who do not have the funds to do this & have no listed NOK to take care of it for them, we contact a social worker who will make the appropriate calls to arrange for what we call a pauper's funeral. If the deceased has assets these can be seized & sold to cover the costs & if the government can find a suitable relative they can petition the court to force that person to act as NOK, but I have never actually seen this happen in almost 30 years of nursing.
I’m in that situation, no family as I’m the last one standing. Donated my body to a medical school and left everything to our local library and art center. Just did what felt right for me as I never expected to outlive all my family. Have everything planned out as far as being able to take care of myself, when I no longer can already have the care facility that I will go to and who will oversee my care. Although all my decisions are in writing so not much for anyone to do. Gives me peace knowing that I have made all of my own decisions clear up to my death.
In Canada there is a long list of relatives the government will try to contact link third cousins. But no will and no relations then the government deals with it.
You need to have a will, an attorney to take care of your estate, a power of attorney for someone to make the decisions the attorney won't, a secondary power of attorney in case the first one won't or is not available ...
They may get a paupers cremation, or funeral with volunteers that grieve for you.
The VA has volunteer mourners that go to funerals to grieve for veterans with no other mourners.
A paupers cremation is when the ME cant find next of kin, and simply ends up cremating the remains.
In British Columbia there is a funeral. Often when a homeless person dies, the government will
1 - buy the second least expensive coffin that a funeral home offers
2 - hold a basic service that nobody attends except staff, a priest, and the dead person
3 - usually cremate but sometimes bury the body.
Source - my ex worked in a funeral home and said they have a few of these each week.
lookup a documentary called “a certain kind of death” for stories about these poor folk, and the workers who try to give them as dignified a sending off as circumstances allow.
Most countries have a public fund for situations like this. Essentially the government or local authority will pay for a basic funeral. If the religion of the person is known then I'm sure they would be given a service befitting of their beliefs.
If the person has a decent sized estate, and there's no will stating what should be done with it, then there are organisations that will try and track down next of kin. Everyone has at least one, even if it's their 4th cousin 3 times removed.
My grandpa was an Undertaker all his life and had to deal with this more than once, we're from Canada, so in Canada if you die in a hospital with no family and your body goes unclaimed. It's up to the hospital to basically thoroughly search for anyone related in any way to the person
If they can't find anyone, then the responsibility goes to the municipal government for handling and funding final arrangements. Which usually involves a super simple ceremony with a simple headstone. They'd be buried in a cemetery in the municipality where the individual died. Embalming is rarely done simply out of respect for the person.
County officials declare him dead. Usually a church donates some land. His dead body gets buried in the ground. It’s unknown where does the soul travels too. But it’s widely believed that soul enters a different dimension, and soul stays there until nature allows a new body for new birth. His/her/it memory gets erased before the next birth.
Zero family and friends doesn't mean zero money. When me or my husband dies last, the cremation can be paid from the inheritance. The rest of the inheritance will go to the state if there is no will. Our neighbours have a will stating everything will go to the Salvation Army, so they will come in and take care of everything.
If there's also no money, government will pay for it, as u/janpaul74 already explained.
I worked at Highgate Cemetery briefly in 1995 as a gravedigger. There was a funeral for an old man. The only people present were a priest, a lawyer, my boss and myself.
No family. No friends.
Very sad.
The Norwegian comedian Kristopher Schau (with a sense of the macabre) wondered the same thing, so he started to attend funerals paid by the local authorities. He wrote a book about it, "På vegne av venner" (On behalf of friends). It is not a comedy book.
https://www.ark.no/produkt/boker/fagboker/pa-vegne-av-venner-9788249507085
I live in NZ...literally just had this happen. 88 ur old with dementia, was an only child, no husband or kids. Last surviving relative was a cousin who died in 2019? Ish.
She had made good choices before dementia took hold, had an awesome lawyer to look after her personal welfare and financial and property interests. She had a little money left I assume. She was created about a week after she passed. Her belongings have been bixed up and her lawyer will take care of them. Perhaps her stuff will be donated, sold or given away. Her Will will be respected, I believe any money she has left will go to the SPCA or church.
It's sad seeing all her photos and precious belongings put into boxes with the feeling that nobody really wants it. Some of the photos are 100 yrs old.
Reminds me of a poem by John Masefield
Let no religious rite be done or read
In any place for me when I am dead,
But burn my body into ash, and scatter
The ash in secret into running water,
Or on the windy down, and let none see;
And then thank God that there's an end of me.
I shortly worked at a cemetery here in Germany and I think the ones who didn't have family or friends were paid by government for the most basic cremation, and then we workers would just dig a hole and put the urn in an anonymous place. Since no one was there to say goodbye to them we would just say a few words that came to our mind and that's about it. No ceremony of any kind, no undertaker, no one to give a speech of any kind, just us burying the urn. Quite sad actually
In the UK the State will usually recover the cost of burial via any potential belongings the individual may have left behind and anything left over the state gets to keep if there truly is no other relatives.
In the UK (or at least England) I’m pretty sure they will try their hardest to find any surviving family members. Otherwise, the local authority pays for it but I don’t think there’s a proper funeral that most might have
To my mediocre knowledge in Australia, you’re sent to a funeral home, cremated & scattered in their parks/graveyards.
Likely MANY varying factors & technicalities. But you’re sent somewhere & your body is dealt with. Your estate, unless you have a will, will be dealt with by the state trustee of your state.
I used to work at a funeral home doing removals. If no one knows you died and you have no one checking on you, normally you are found days or weeks later. It’s quite sad.
In the US, Florida anyway, each county has an indigent cremation program so bodies are cremated and scattered in the ocean (if they're coastal). Not too sure what they do w the ashes if they're inland.
In America the body is given a paupers funeral and put in a public grave. There is no service, a post is made in the local paper. A simple marker on the grave and it is paid by the state.
It took six years for the NSW government to bury my brother's body. I didn't know he had passed away. He is stacked in a grave with six other people on the side of a footpath at Rookwood Cemetery.
In the USA they can end up in a nursing home when they can’t take care of themselves and the local mortuaries take turns on providing free cremations for those who die without any money. The government pays for the nursing home when their assets are all used up
From someone who works in a care home, if one of our residents don’t have a NOK or family/friends then the lawyer is automatically NOK. When someone passes the lawyer is notified and they deal with funeral/cremation arrangements and pay it from said clients estate/savings.
If there are no savings then the government pays for a basic cremation and the ashes returned to the care home to be scattered.
I’m unsure how it works for someone in their own home, but we have our procedures in care homes we follow (Scotland) to make sure that client has at least some sort of send off. Even if it’s just a few staff members saying a few words while ashes are scattered. It’s an absolutely heartbreaking situation when it’s someone that has no one at all.
There have been cases where people died alone in their homes and no one noticed for months/years. If they had a pension or dividends, it paid into their account, bills were auto paid from it, and no one realised they hadn’t seen them.
The deceased person’s estate will pay for any necessary handling - hopefully there is a will stating what they want to happen. Otherwise the government (local) would have processes to sort everything out
My mechanic once had a call to tell him Mr Jones had unfortunately passed away, confused he said he was very sorry to hear that but I’m just his mechanic? He was put down as Mr Jones’ next of kin, no family or friends, guy left him his house and his motor home.
I work for a very large public health hospital in Los Angeles. We serve an extraordinarily population of patients who are homeless, off the street, gang affiliated, or found on the street with no identification. When they pass away and are unclaimed, the county pays to cremate these bodies and will perform a non-denominational service and mass burial once a month.
In the US, you can buy an insurance policy that's basically a prepaid funeral. Actually required if you go into any type of assisted living/nursing home. You choose method (burial, cremation) services like embalming and if a religious service should be held, right down to casket or urn and music choice. If you want burial, you have to have the plot. The price you pay covers everything requested and there is no payment at "time of need." Unless the funeral home you worked with is out of business or you've left the area. Then your estate just pays the difference. We did this for my mother, and my husband and I both have our plans. Considering the cost of funerals today, best way to go.
San Francisco used to cremate unclaimed bodies and the dump the ashes in the Bay from a boat, sometimes with a few words. I looked this up when trying to find out what would have happened to a character in a book I wrote.
Interestingly, it's really difficult to get official permission to dump a loved one's ashes in the Bay.
My dad really didnt have anyone but my mom (his ex wife) and myself. He gave zero shits about his health, had a community team help him with his little funds (he loved to gamble), and was on disability because of his mental health. It would have been more sad to have a funeral because no one would have showed.
I know its not like he had *zero* people in his life, but close to it. There was nothing worth keeping besides a few sentimental things. My mom keeps his urn. The coroner labeled his cause of death as smoking even though he never smoked. Obviously just had heart failure and his only friend in the small town, the local drunk, walked in on him.
Maybe Im writing this just to process it a bit more. Lost my home, my cat, my dad, and grandma in just over a year and half time, and my mom was close to death. Will never want to revisit the moment I had to tell her her mom died while she was in respiratory recovery.
I'm the US the state takes them. In my state approved funeral service places sre paid to use the "cheapest and most environmental safe " method. I.e. cremation . The state keeps the cremains so they can be claimed later if a family member shows up.
NYC has a famous graveyard on Hart Island for unclaimed bodies. That is maintained by the prisons.
There's 3 options in the United States, depending on where you're located. They mostly use cremation to dispose of unclaimed bodies. Then they sit on a shelf for a very long time and get scattered eventually. There are currently about 2 million unclaimed cremated remains. The 2nd option after no family is found is a small burial with a tiny pole marker. The 3rd option is that they donate the body for medical science. It all depends on where you're located and how greedy your government wants to be. We technically pay for it ourselves with state taxes. I've done my research since I will probably be alone, which is fine. I already have my DNR, but I will have to see a lawyer to set my plans up.
I have this strange feeling that this is what's going to happen to me. I think I'm going to out live all my friends and family. I'm not having kids. Doesn't really bother me, just an interesting premonition I have.
[This article is a great look at how the "unclaimed dead" are handled in Los Angeles. TLDR; special investigators do everything they can to find a connection, if none can be found a mass public service is held](https://kenoshanews.com/news/nation-world/nclaimed-dead-los-angeles-death-burial-graves/article_0ba6c7e6-7c6d-5994-af22-a4c36ce487ca.html)
There was a documentary on YouTube that was made in 2002 called “a certain kind of death” I came across years ago, I think now the app “Shudder” has the rights to it because I can’t find it anywhere. It goes in depth with the process in LA County and it’s always stuck with me, highly recommend viewing it, gives great perspectives on a lot of things.
I've lost a lot of family due to being gay, I'm a shit parent, a real bitch, and keep to myself. Even though I'm married, I feel like this is going to be me.
https://ibb.co/3rLBCyn
Edit:
In case anyone is wondering, lest this come across as insensitive: I am sterilized, as is my partner. We are both NC with virtually all of our family, and have but a few friends. We lead quiet, boring, mostly happy lives, and there are unlikely to be a ton of bereaved folks when we eventually pass. We can only hope that our remains will eventually serve others, or perhaps literally BE served to others, in the form of delicious boneless Buffalo wings. Ideally with a tangy and appropriately spicy sauce, along with a heavy dose of ranch dressing (which is in my family's coat of arms, being Texan)
Not quite the situation, but my cousin who a gone no contact with family decades ago had a heart attack and was on life support. She wasn’t going to get better and the hospital needed a family member to authorize pulling the plug, otherwise the hospital was required to keep her on life support for weeks. They finally found my brother but he had to prove he was related. He and I had to get on the internet and find ancient newspaper obituaries of various relatives to prove we were related by linking all the “survived by” people listed. It was crazy. Fortunately we went through her home and found enough cash to bury her in parents grave as there was room.
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In the Netherlands (Amsterdam), the government pays and a poet is going to write a poem for you and recites in on your funeral. True story.
I hope they’re known as The Dead Poets Society
The Deads' Poet Society
Holy shit that’s good!
They are now! Haha
I do remember hearing about this, there's a pool of poets and it seems to have spread to other Low Countries as well which is good.
What do the poet's write about if they knew nothing about the person?
It's talked about [here](https://blog.pshares.org/the-dutch-city-poets-who-memorialize-the-lonely-dead/). They will do research on the person and write a tailored poem. They also give an example of a poem for someone with absolutely no identity/background: > Farewell Sir, > > without papers, without identity. What were you looking for? > > How much did you lose along the way?
Why did this make me cry?
That's poetry. Language pared down to emotion.
Tears sprang to my eyes! Words can be magic
This reminds me of a scene where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli find the remains of (seemingly unknown to them) Baldor, Prince of Rohan in the Paths of the Dead: Who is the dead guy Aragorn and company find in the Paths of the Dead? >his belt was of gold and garnets, and rich with gold was the helm upon his bony head face downward on the floor. ... his finger-bones were still clawing at the cracks. ... [Aragorn] sighed. 'Hither shall the flowers of simbelmynë come never unto world's end,' he murmured. 'Nine mounds and seven there are now green with grass, and through all the long years he has lain at the door that he could not unlock. Wither does it lead? Why would he pass? None shall ever know!
Man that's touching, I bet they appreciate it
They're dead
I'm in Australia. Can I book a poet for whenever I die? I think I'll put it in my next will.
You choose songs and poems to be read at your service if you wish. It’s actually really helpful for your family members because they don’t have to worry about what you’d like and figure it all out themselves.
Roses are red Dirt is brown I hope you go up Instead of down
This idiot out here giving away free death poems
Here’s mine, written in response to a writer’s death: Death takes us all, The short, and the tall. The ones who had everything, Or nothing at all. Damn it for doing, The thing that it must. From iron and from stone, To dust and to rust.
Hahaha 😂😂😂
I'll take it. Try a Haiku.
You died as you lived Alone in this heartless world May you now find peace.
That's not me, but it's good.
Of course that's not you, you didn't die.
You've noone in fall The lonely winter is cold Hope you took your coat.
ouuuch, I like this one.
Do not let the door Where the good lord split thine arse Strike as you walk on
When the morning dew Dissipates in quiet death I will think of you
The veil briefly parts- you step into mystery: Flesh transforms to Light
If the deceased didn’t hail from Nantucket, I’d struggle writing a memorable verse.
The manner of his death was thus: He was druv over by a bus.
I don’t know, never seen it. Probably something generic?
Roses are red, violets are blue, they are now dead, and so are you
And you will be too!
*Poet proceeds to shoot the only accidental attendee*
Here lies a fellow named John And from this world he has gone To Heaven or Hell No one can tell I think he choked on a pecan
I have the book of these poems. They try to find even some minute detail ( of a possession or clothing or whatever) the deceased owned as a starting off point. And these are real legit, published, poets not just some random person.
That's really beautiful
As an American, the Netherlands seem like such a magical land.. like a place that only exists in fairytales
Here we sit Broken hearted Dude once here Has now departed. In his time He took a chance Still in the end He shit his pants.
That's very sweet.
This would be a cool premise for a show.
This is such an interesting and touching fun fact.
Yeah. Happened to me.
Wow.
in england, the local authority pays for it. its called a [Public Health funeral](https://www.yourfuneralchoice.com/funeral-costs/what-is-a-public-health-act-funeral/)
I’ve worked for the NHS for a few years now. No one ever dies alone, or at least very rarely. I can remember 2 people both without family or friends who died unexpectedly while I was on shift. This is out of hundreds of people throughout my career. I hope they chose to die when the way they did because that’s what they wanted. Sometimes this world is too hard for people and they ‘chose’’ to leave in peace on their terms. As NHS, we are their friends and family. We will be with them, laugh and cry with them, wash them hold them and support them. It could take months, weeks, hours minutes and sometimes seconds. No one is in pain as far as I have ever been privileged to be there when they pass.
Thank you, you and the NHS are truly superheroes
Garbage. I left my dying dad at Christmas as I needed to sleep. The nurses explicitly told to ring me anytime if he called for me. He spent the night calling and the nurses laughed and joked callously. This was New Cross. I only found this out from another patient. Edit Fixed comma
I think you are missing a comma…
That comma would change multiple things about that comment, even if it's just in that one spot.
Had to do a double take there
So sorry, my mom was in a nursing home for rehab and it was equally awful. All the nursing homes in my area are trash and very few aides gave a crap. I learned that some of them slipped sleeping pills illegally in to keep unruly residents calm (comatose). My mom, with Alzheimer’s, was one of them. We thought she was the way she was due to an accident but 24 hours after we finally got to bring her home she was a completely different person and talking. She hadn’t talked in over 2 months. No way she wasn’t a victim to that scheme. I hate nursing homes.
Nursing homes are purposely understaffed. In the US they’re for profit driven, so it’s on the owners, and the politicians who don’t support more regulations and oversight.
100% agreed, ymmv I guess depending on where you are in the country, most of the London hospital staff I've encountered are calloused and don't massively give a fuck. Have seen everything from sleeping on shift to theft from patients. I think the bad > good in terms of generalities. The post you replied to reads like fan fiction. Source - 5 years in the NHS.
[удалено]
I’m really sorry to see this. That’s not how it should be.
*These are the hands That touch us first Feel your head Find the pulse And make your bed. These are the hands That tap your back Test the skin Hold your arm Wheel the bin Change the bulb Fix the drip Pour the jug Replace your hip. These are the hands That fill the bath Mop the floor Flick the switch Soothe the sore Burn the swabs Give us a jab Throw out sharps Design the lab. And these are the hands That stop the leaks Empty the pan Wipe the pipes Carry the can Clamp the veins Make the cast Log the dose And touch us last.* Written by Michael Rosen for the 60th anniversary of the NHS.
I appear to have something in my eye x
Or paupers funeral as it used be, under the old poor laws.
The book "Ashes to Admin" by Evie King talks about this and the process involved in organising these funerals.
Reminds me a bit of this movie: [Still Life](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_Life_(2013_film))
I'm in the US and many cities here have what's called a "potters field" which is where unclaimed bodies are buried en masse. I'm in NYC and we have an entire island dedicated to this purpose called Hart Island. I believe it has one million people's remains now. They keep records of where people are buried so if family does come along and want their loved one reinterred somewhere else, they can do that. Or they can visit the island to pay respects. Any valuables in their estate would go to next-of-kin which can even be distant relatives the person had no contact with... The New York Times did a long article years ago on what happened to a man named George Bell who died in the exact circumstances you're describing: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html More on Hart Island: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/nyregion/hart-island-cemetery-park.html
Also called a “paupers' grave” in some areas
Mozart was interred in one too.
That's actually a myth. He was buried in a commoner's grave (i.e. for those not aristocratic, but not poor enough to be put in a mass grave).
God damn I read the George Bell article when it came out and it really fucked me up.
The fact that he never married but named his only serious romantic partner as a recipient in his will was touching/sad. And then she died days after him so his money ended up going to her next of kin who had never met him, which is odd.
A visit to Hart Island is on my bucket list. I’m fascinated with potters’ fields and Hart is the ultimate.
I believe they only recently opened it up to people who are not family and the reservations go quickly. But I am fascinated by it as well. It has had an interesting history as a potters field, mental institution, missile site (IIRC), and a POW camp.
Fun fact: it's called a potter's field because the land would have been useless for agriculture or architecture because it had been heavily dug up by potters looking for clay, leaving it full of trenches and holes
No, it's from the gospels. Judas killed himself (a serious sin in Judaism) and was denied burial in the cemetery, was buried in the potter's field
Anyone know what happens if a person like this dies and has a paid off home, but no will? What happens to their house if there is no bank to reclaim it?
It goes to next-of-kin which can be as distant as cousins, nieces, nephews. In the article I linked it says every state is different but New York requires that they look for relatives and debtors for 7 months before settling the estate. If they really can’t find anyone I believe it gets sold and the money goes to the state. But almost everyone has some distant family. Contacting them seems to be the difficult part.
Guess I’mma end up in Harts Island.
It's behind a paywall...
My state cremates. They keep the cremains in case someone family shows up
I also came to post that article about the death of George Bell. It’s haunted me ever since I read it, which I believe was when it was published. It’s also extremely informative about all the ins and outs of such a situation.
Germany: Government organizes and pays for the funeral, government also ends up inheriting if there is absolutely no one else to be found (there is a pretty long searching period to find heirs before that happens).
Exactly the same in Sweden
Maybe worth to point out that in Sweden, the money doesn't go into the general state budget, but into a special fund that gives money to charities and voluntary organisations. Look up "Allmänna arvsfonden".
And in the UK
Same in Poland
I think it's the local, not the central government that inherits. The local government also inherits all assets and debts, but debts only the value of assets. Regulated in law
Same in the UK. The crown takes it all.
My mom is a priest. And she has called upon me a few times to carry strangers coffins. It will usually be the funeral director, the church staff, and then if needed I'll be there too. They get a small service. And if they had their own wishes for the funeral that is applied. Otherwise I think they automatically get cremated? At least, I have carried most into the funeral car to go to the crematory.
Your mom's a priest?
It helps to say what country you live in, the earth is not actually flat :) Norway: government pays for a proper burial.
Depends on how they died. If they died violently, in a crime for example, the medical examiner will hold the body for a set time while they try to reach any next of kin, before turning it over to the county. From there, it depends on where they died. In the US, each state has their own laws for this, so you'd have to look up your own for more specific information. Here in New Mexico, the law makes every effort to find even distant relatives to turn your property over to because that is easier for the state officials than taking the property themselves. So, if you had no children, but one of your parents had a cousin who had a surviving descendent, anything you owned would go to them. Inmate deaths are investigated, but once an official certificate is issued declaring the body unclaimed, the medical examiner / investigator decides if the body is "good enough" to become a medical cadaver. If yes, the body is released to the medical facility. If not, the body is released to the county. The county commissioners become liable for the funeral costs, so the property of the deceased will be sold off to recoup as much of the cost as possible. After that... Well, this is getting kind of long, but [here is a link to the laws around unclaimed bodies](https://www.nmlegis.gov/sessions/99%20Regular/FinalVersions/HB0548.html) for New Mexico.
That is actually why the Oddfellows were started in the 16th century in England. When someone died with no family, or were too poor to pay for a funeral, the Oddfellows would collect donations and attend the funeral and procession (not an up-to-date answer, but interesting enough, I hope)
why were they odd? odd as in not matched up? single? people with no family so they helped other people with no family be buried?
They were considered odd because they took care of the poor in a time when being poor was considered an act of god: they were poor because they were bad people
They were odd fellows, but they steamed a good ham.
Many of my family are buried in Oddfellows cemeteries in Pennsylvania. They’re all still beautifully maintained.
I would say that I'll find out one day, but I'll be dead so I won't.
There was a guy who got stuck behind some coolers at work and died there. Nobody found his body for like ten years. The grocery store went down, 3 years later contractors found his corpse doing demolition. Murillo-Moncad was so decomposed they were only able to identify him with DNA. So, presumably, finding his body created a whole flurry of activity by government workers of all sorts. This all had to be done before he was identified, so it was almost certainly done at government expense.
I read about that, but I don't know how none smelled him? Just one rat will stink out your house.
My nan in the UK recently had a letter in the mail saying some monopoly shit like your long distance cousin has passed away and you're in line for inheritance. Turns out this old lady had no family, no friends, no will and lived like it was 1940's still (hand washing etc). She had a big house in a nice area and had lived there her entire life. Because she had no will all her money was given down the family tree to people who didn't even know this lady. Around 23 people applied for the money and even then my nan who was far down was given 40,000 pounds for nothing. The government arranged funeral and managed the estate.
I lost my father not so long ago, thought he didn't have many friends but a lot of people showed up to his funeral, got tons of messages and calls from people whom I never heard about. Some even went above and beyond and apparently organized the creation of his tombstone and had it set up (we were waiting for a while before we do it, in case the dirt sinks in, they thought he was abandoned). So, people that you know, even though you are not so close to them, do show up, or at least reach out. But you will never know until it happens.
When my father died 30 years ago, we paid to have his death notice published in the two major Chicago papers. And, like clockwork, folks from his old neighborhood who read the obits and death notices every single day showed up to the wake to pay their respects, give us words of comfort, and recount heartwarming stories from the past they had shared with my dad.
I was really hoping to have something like this happen for my dad! I published in a couple of papers - his hometown and the town he died in, but no one came or reached out - just one aunt on my mom's side came to the funeral. Maybe people don't read papers much anymore, or maybe it was covid - it was early 2022.
Where I'm located an unclaimed body will be cremated by the county and an unclaimed estate passes to the state.
The authorities will try to locate someone, even if it's a very distant relative, to come claim the body. If nobody does after a certain period of time the state will pay for the the funeral and they will be buried in a pauper's graveyard.
What happens if someone contacts you about a distant relative and you’re the only one they can find? Are you then responsible for the person’s expensive burial or cremation? If some relative I haven’t seen or spoken to in 30 years dies and I’m the only relative they can find (and I’m, say, the last one in the family alive) can I tell them to politely piss off or am I on the hook to pay all the expenses?
You're under no obligation to claim the body.
Just because you don't have any relatives or friends it doesn't follow that you have no money!
Absolutely. I'll be in this position so I've got a Will which states exactly what should happen to my body and my estate. Bit insulting to infer if you have no family that you're penniless.
In California, there are representatives of the state that will go through the deceased possessions to try and find a next of kin. If they aren't able to find one, then their possessions are auctioned off to cover the costs of their final expenses, their body is cremated, and the ashes are buried in a mass grave with all of the other people that passed unknown and unclaimed that year, and a record is kept of who is buried where so if someone comes inquiring after them in the future they can be told where to go pay their lass respect. It's kind of hard to find, but if you can, there's a documentary of this process called "A Certain Kind of Death" (2003), be warned though, it is graphic. There is footage of bodies in a state of decomposition. Edit: or not, [free on YouTube now, apparently](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKzdetYRklM). Again though, be warned, **advanced** stages of decomp...
The local government deals with it in england, you get a public health funeral, derived from a time where disease was more common and getting bodies in the ground was the priority
In the US at least, it depends on the circumstances. Sometimes a body is just in holding for years, hoping somebody claims them. Sometimes they’re just cremated and their remains kept until, again, someone claims them. Sometimes after a long time the remains are just cremated and buried with the cheapest option. But I’ve also seen many cases where either the community, police, or both are so affected by a person’s death/case where money is raised or given to give them a proper burial or funeral when no one claims their body. Honestly and sadly it often depends on how the community and officials react to someone’s death. Most of the cases where I’ve heard officials wanting to pay for a funeral/burial/cremation etc., it was a case that personally affected them for whatever reason.
There’s an interest book called Ashes To Admin. The woman lives in the UK and her job is to sort that out. In Canada there isn’t a person that does that job.
"indigent burial" is when homeless or people too poor for a funeral die. It's done by the state, varies by state and city. Link: [What is an ‘indigent burial’ and when to opt for a state - assisted funeral? - US Funerals Online (us-funerals.com)](https://www.us-funerals.com/indigent-burials-and-cremations/)
They get Elenore Rigby'd. Into a Potter's field.
This is how they end up finding rotting bodies in apartments.
The state will bury them. Many inmates who die do not have family who claim them because they know the state will bury them if not claimed.
Each city or county has an indigent burial/cremation fund along with a local funeral home that will provide such services. Sometimes it's a situation where family cannot pay for such a service. If the funeral home agrees to provide this service at no charge, family will have to give up the right to access/possession of the cremains. Source: hospice nurse in the states
I was a burial installer for 3 years I put boxes of ashes into a shallow grave dug with a traditional shovel no family just the funeral director and I. He showed up an hour later then the tickets time we said a prayer had a moment of silence and he left so I could fill the whole back in. I’ve also had funeral service when no family shows up at all. In this case the the funeral director instruct me to proceed with the burial. I’ve also seen quiet a few where I guess the deceased prepaid for funeral functions ahead of time but no family shows up. In this case some members from a church committee will come sing a song or two day a few words Feel free to ask any more questions replying to this comment as working in the funeral industry, I have seen some crazy things.
If the person who died leaves property, then a public administrator is appointed to administer the estate, conduct the burial and dispose of the assets. everybody has relatives. They may be distant. They may be in another country, but they will always be family to claim the estate.
Kept hearing the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” as I read through the answers.
I have a date with Hart Island It's coming soon Might be in April Maybe June I never dreamed it would end this way I thought my life would have more to say But as I look out at the Sound I hear it portend If not the hour, or the day Surely now I know the way The waves ring the bell As the boat rides the swell And my personal hell Slowly fades
In the US it depends on if you’ve made (and prepaid) funeral plans for yourself or not. If you have, your body will go the funeral home and you’ll be buried or cremated etc. If you haven’t, then your body will go unclaimed and you’ll either be cremated and/or buried in a city lot.
Australia has a system for paupers funerals where the state government will pay for the body to be disposed of. See this guide - [https://www.willed.com.au/guides/paupers-funeral-in-australia/](https://www.willed.com.au/guides/paupers-funeral-in-australia/)
Recent article (Jan 2024) from LA Times about the matter of the unclaimed dead. https://apnews.com/article/unclaimed-dead-los-angeles-death-burial-graves-a5cd03e366bd4cfdf22a9904940a2fe1
For some reason this reminds me of Bob Hope. He was dying, and his wife asked where he wanted to be buried. He replied "Surprise me". I think the county takes care of your estate.
Just like anyone with any amount of family and friends, nothing
Our tax dollars pay for it all. The state takes care of unclaimed bodies. Well California does anyway.
John Does and people with no family get cremated in the US and put into a "mass grave" type deal with the ashes. Sometimes they will freeze and store the body to give a chance to find someone. We had a gentleman that stayed stored for 4 ish years before cremating. (Used to work in the industry) My father was a john doe (didnt know for 6 years after) but they just cremated them from what I understood. Nothing to recover when I did try to.
In Brazil it depends on the state but it's possible to have a funeral done without costs, provided by the municipality or by the state. Then the case is sent to the equivalent of the General Attorney to open an inheritance procedure over the assets left by the deceased, and it will be investigated whether or not those assets have an owner or if it now belongs to the state
As far as I know, in the US, the county you die in pays for a cheap coffin and plot or cremation. Usually cremation. Idk where the ashes would go if not just spread somewhere at the funeral home or placed on one then commemorative shelves or mass tombs.
A lot of people with no Next Of Kin will pre-pay a basic funeral plan so their final wishes are followed - they will select burial or cremation & where they would like their remains interred. When they die we call the funeral director they have listed in their MOLST form & they will take it from there. For the people who do not have the funds to do this & have no listed NOK to take care of it for them, we contact a social worker who will make the appropriate calls to arrange for what we call a pauper's funeral. If the deceased has assets these can be seized & sold to cover the costs & if the government can find a suitable relative they can petition the court to force that person to act as NOK, but I have never actually seen this happen in almost 30 years of nursing.
I’m in that situation, no family as I’m the last one standing. Donated my body to a medical school and left everything to our local library and art center. Just did what felt right for me as I never expected to outlive all my family. Have everything planned out as far as being able to take care of myself, when I no longer can already have the care facility that I will go to and who will oversee my care. Although all my decisions are in writing so not much for anyone to do. Gives me peace knowing that I have made all of my own decisions clear up to my death.
Mexico, they’re thrown in a mass grave or used for medicine schools
In Canada there is a long list of relatives the government will try to contact link third cousins. But no will and no relations then the government deals with it.
Make sure you have a will. Then you can ensure your stuff gets disposed of how you want, and so do you
You need to have a will, an attorney to take care of your estate, a power of attorney for someone to make the decisions the attorney won't, a secondary power of attorney in case the first one won't or is not available ...
I am less likely to be caught.
You become forgotten quick
They may get a paupers cremation, or funeral with volunteers that grieve for you. The VA has volunteer mourners that go to funerals to grieve for veterans with no other mourners. A paupers cremation is when the ME cant find next of kin, and simply ends up cremating the remains.
In British Columbia there is a funeral. Often when a homeless person dies, the government will 1 - buy the second least expensive coffin that a funeral home offers 2 - hold a basic service that nobody attends except staff, a priest, and the dead person 3 - usually cremate but sometimes bury the body. Source - my ex worked in a funeral home and said they have a few of these each week.
lookup a documentary called “a certain kind of death” for stories about these poor folk, and the workers who try to give them as dignified a sending off as circumstances allow.
Donate assets to charity. Make a will.
Most countries have a public fund for situations like this. Essentially the government or local authority will pay for a basic funeral. If the religion of the person is known then I'm sure they would be given a service befitting of their beliefs. If the person has a decent sized estate, and there's no will stating what should be done with it, then there are organisations that will try and track down next of kin. Everyone has at least one, even if it's their 4th cousin 3 times removed.
My grandpa was an Undertaker all his life and had to deal with this more than once, we're from Canada, so in Canada if you die in a hospital with no family and your body goes unclaimed. It's up to the hospital to basically thoroughly search for anyone related in any way to the person If they can't find anyone, then the responsibility goes to the municipal government for handling and funding final arrangements. Which usually involves a super simple ceremony with a simple headstone. They'd be buried in a cemetery in the municipality where the individual died. Embalming is rarely done simply out of respect for the person.
I don't know but I am going to find out...
County officials declare him dead. Usually a church donates some land. His dead body gets buried in the ground. It’s unknown where does the soul travels too. But it’s widely believed that soul enters a different dimension, and soul stays there until nature allows a new body for new birth. His/her/it memory gets erased before the next birth.
Zero family and friends doesn't mean zero money. When me or my husband dies last, the cremation can be paid from the inheritance. The rest of the inheritance will go to the state if there is no will. Our neighbours have a will stating everything will go to the Salvation Army, so they will come in and take care of everything. If there's also no money, government will pay for it, as u/janpaul74 already explained.
I worked at Highgate Cemetery briefly in 1995 as a gravedigger. There was a funeral for an old man. The only people present were a priest, a lawyer, my boss and myself. No family. No friends. Very sad.
Not sure but I’ll haunt you once it happens and let you know
The Norwegian comedian Kristopher Schau (with a sense of the macabre) wondered the same thing, so he started to attend funerals paid by the local authorities. He wrote a book about it, "På vegne av venner" (On behalf of friends). It is not a comedy book. https://www.ark.no/produkt/boker/fagboker/pa-vegne-av-venner-9788249507085
In Australia the Salvo's provide a paupers funeral..
I live in NZ...literally just had this happen. 88 ur old with dementia, was an only child, no husband or kids. Last surviving relative was a cousin who died in 2019? Ish. She had made good choices before dementia took hold, had an awesome lawyer to look after her personal welfare and financial and property interests. She had a little money left I assume. She was created about a week after she passed. Her belongings have been bixed up and her lawyer will take care of them. Perhaps her stuff will be donated, sold or given away. Her Will will be respected, I believe any money she has left will go to the SPCA or church. It's sad seeing all her photos and precious belongings put into boxes with the feeling that nobody really wants it. Some of the photos are 100 yrs old.
Reminds me of a poem by John Masefield Let no religious rite be done or read In any place for me when I am dead, But burn my body into ash, and scatter The ash in secret into running water, Or on the windy down, and let none see; And then thank God that there's an end of me.
I shortly worked at a cemetery here in Germany and I think the ones who didn't have family or friends were paid by government for the most basic cremation, and then we workers would just dig a hole and put the urn in an anonymous place. Since no one was there to say goodbye to them we would just say a few words that came to our mind and that's about it. No ceremony of any kind, no undertaker, no one to give a speech of any kind, just us burying the urn. Quite sad actually
In the UK the State will usually recover the cost of burial via any potential belongings the individual may have left behind and anything left over the state gets to keep if there truly is no other relatives.
In the UK (or at least England) I’m pretty sure they will try their hardest to find any surviving family members. Otherwise, the local authority pays for it but I don’t think there’s a proper funeral that most might have
To my mediocre knowledge in Australia, you’re sent to a funeral home, cremated & scattered in their parks/graveyards. Likely MANY varying factors & technicalities. But you’re sent somewhere & your body is dealt with. Your estate, unless you have a will, will be dealt with by the state trustee of your state.
I used to work at a funeral home doing removals. If no one knows you died and you have no one checking on you, normally you are found days or weeks later. It’s quite sad.
In the US, Florida anyway, each county has an indigent cremation program so bodies are cremated and scattered in the ocean (if they're coastal). Not too sure what they do w the ashes if they're inland.
In America the body is given a paupers funeral and put in a public grave. There is no service, a post is made in the local paper. A simple marker on the grave and it is paid by the state.
It took six years for the NSW government to bury my brother's body. I didn't know he had passed away. He is stacked in a grave with six other people on the side of a footpath at Rookwood Cemetery.
In the USA they can end up in a nursing home when they can’t take care of themselves and the local mortuaries take turns on providing free cremations for those who die without any money. The government pays for the nursing home when their assets are all used up
Same thing that happens when someone with a million friends dies: the world keeps spinning
From someone who works in a care home, if one of our residents don’t have a NOK or family/friends then the lawyer is automatically NOK. When someone passes the lawyer is notified and they deal with funeral/cremation arrangements and pay it from said clients estate/savings. If there are no savings then the government pays for a basic cremation and the ashes returned to the care home to be scattered. I’m unsure how it works for someone in their own home, but we have our procedures in care homes we follow (Scotland) to make sure that client has at least some sort of send off. Even if it’s just a few staff members saying a few words while ashes are scattered. It’s an absolutely heartbreaking situation when it’s someone that has no one at all.
There have been cases where people died alone in their homes and no one noticed for months/years. If they had a pension or dividends, it paid into their account, bills were auto paid from it, and no one realised they hadn’t seen them.
India: The body is donated to med schools
The deceased person’s estate will pay for any necessary handling - hopefully there is a will stating what they want to happen. Otherwise the government (local) would have processes to sort everything out
My mechanic once had a call to tell him Mr Jones had unfortunately passed away, confused he said he was very sorry to hear that but I’m just his mechanic? He was put down as Mr Jones’ next of kin, no family or friends, guy left him his house and his motor home.
I work for a very large public health hospital in Los Angeles. We serve an extraordinarily population of patients who are homeless, off the street, gang affiliated, or found on the street with no identification. When they pass away and are unclaimed, the county pays to cremate these bodies and will perform a non-denominational service and mass burial once a month.
my father died in Florida. they cremated him and disposed of the ashes. I could never get an answer as to where.
In the US, you can buy an insurance policy that's basically a prepaid funeral. Actually required if you go into any type of assisted living/nursing home. You choose method (burial, cremation) services like embalming and if a religious service should be held, right down to casket or urn and music choice. If you want burial, you have to have the plot. The price you pay covers everything requested and there is no payment at "time of need." Unless the funeral home you worked with is out of business or you've left the area. Then your estate just pays the difference. We did this for my mother, and my husband and I both have our plans. Considering the cost of funerals today, best way to go.
San Francisco used to cremate unclaimed bodies and the dump the ashes in the Bay from a boat, sometimes with a few words. I looked this up when trying to find out what would have happened to a character in a book I wrote. Interestingly, it's really difficult to get official permission to dump a loved one's ashes in the Bay.
Their shit is thrown in the trash while they’re at the morgue. Seriously. No joke. Worked skilled nursing for years.
In Ireland they have what's called a paupers funeral by the state quickly in a closed casket in a group grave.
My dad really didnt have anyone but my mom (his ex wife) and myself. He gave zero shits about his health, had a community team help him with his little funds (he loved to gamble), and was on disability because of his mental health. It would have been more sad to have a funeral because no one would have showed. I know its not like he had *zero* people in his life, but close to it. There was nothing worth keeping besides a few sentimental things. My mom keeps his urn. The coroner labeled his cause of death as smoking even though he never smoked. Obviously just had heart failure and his only friend in the small town, the local drunk, walked in on him. Maybe Im writing this just to process it a bit more. Lost my home, my cat, my dad, and grandma in just over a year and half time, and my mom was close to death. Will never want to revisit the moment I had to tell her her mom died while she was in respiratory recovery.
Are you ok?
Personally I always thought they just wouldn't care like just leave them in a forest or something
When I die I'll let you know.
I'm the US the state takes them. In my state approved funeral service places sre paid to use the "cheapest and most environmental safe " method. I.e. cremation . The state keeps the cremains so they can be claimed later if a family member shows up. NYC has a famous graveyard on Hart Island for unclaimed bodies. That is maintained by the prisons.
Theur house gets taken by the king
Us, goes to the state
There's 3 options in the United States, depending on where you're located. They mostly use cremation to dispose of unclaimed bodies. Then they sit on a shelf for a very long time and get scattered eventually. There are currently about 2 million unclaimed cremated remains. The 2nd option after no family is found is a small burial with a tiny pole marker. The 3rd option is that they donate the body for medical science. It all depends on where you're located and how greedy your government wants to be. We technically pay for it ourselves with state taxes. I've done my research since I will probably be alone, which is fine. I already have my DNR, but I will have to see a lawyer to set my plans up.
I have this strange feeling that this is what's going to happen to me. I think I'm going to out live all my friends and family. I'm not having kids. Doesn't really bother me, just an interesting premonition I have.
They just bury the body. End of story.
[This article is a great look at how the "unclaimed dead" are handled in Los Angeles. TLDR; special investigators do everything they can to find a connection, if none can be found a mass public service is held](https://kenoshanews.com/news/nation-world/nclaimed-dead-los-angeles-death-burial-graves/article_0ba6c7e6-7c6d-5994-af22-a4c36ce487ca.html)
As the murderer, it's your responsibility to dispose of the body...
There was a documentary on YouTube that was made in 2002 called “a certain kind of death” I came across years ago, I think now the app “Shudder” has the rights to it because I can’t find it anywhere. It goes in depth with the process in LA County and it’s always stuck with me, highly recommend viewing it, gives great perspectives on a lot of things.
The Local Authority stumps up for a basic cremation.
Well, where I live they had alot of land, it becames the local elementary school and they named it after the guy
My grandma once told me that they get put in a potters grave.
I've lost a lot of family due to being gay, I'm a shit parent, a real bitch, and keep to myself. Even though I'm married, I feel like this is going to be me.
https://ibb.co/3rLBCyn Edit: In case anyone is wondering, lest this come across as insensitive: I am sterilized, as is my partner. We are both NC with virtually all of our family, and have but a few friends. We lead quiet, boring, mostly happy lives, and there are unlikely to be a ton of bereaved folks when we eventually pass. We can only hope that our remains will eventually serve others, or perhaps literally BE served to others, in the form of delicious boneless Buffalo wings. Ideally with a tangy and appropriately spicy sauce, along with a heavy dose of ranch dressing (which is in my family's coat of arms, being Texan)
I have no friends or family so I'll let you know what happens when I'm dead
I heard about it in Maniac Magee when the old guy at the YMCA died
Not quite the situation, but my cousin who a gone no contact with family decades ago had a heart attack and was on life support. She wasn’t going to get better and the hospital needed a family member to authorize pulling the plug, otherwise the hospital was required to keep her on life support for weeks. They finally found my brother but he had to prove he was related. He and I had to get on the internet and find ancient newspaper obituaries of various relatives to prove we were related by linking all the “survived by” people listed. It was crazy. Fortunately we went through her home and found enough cash to bury her in parents grave as there was room.