No one claimed his body when he died. These strangers came together to help bury him

Mandi Howard is sobbing the coffin of a man who did not know, surrounded by strangers he never met.

However, she knew she needed to be here. Howard lost his sister unexpectedly last year, but could not say goodbye or have a ceremony.

Then, when he learned of a call this week, looking for the volunteer carriers to help in the burial of an unaware body in Oshawa, Ontario, he did not hesitate.

“I have a family out there that is not claimed due to the lack of housing or addictions,” he said shortly after the burial.

“I feel this was healing me … because none of us is not claimed.”

Around a dozen people presented themselves for the short service in a cemetery in Oshawa on Wednesday.

After making a small talk in the parking lot, the group had the task of lifting the coffin of the funeral car. They put flowers, read a poem and broke into an ad-hoc bell of the interpretation of Amazing grace. Howard brought a drum and played a travel song.

“I don’t feel he was with strangers,” he said. “It really seems that we were a group of relatives who joined to send someone who really deserved to know they were loved.”

His name was Michael

Citing privacy, the funeral director told the carriers volunteers very little about the man whose coffin carried:

His name was Michael, he lived in Toronto, and was discouraged.

When no friend or family comes to claim an agency, the municipalities are responsible for paying burials. Then they resort to funeral directors such as Nathan Romagnoli, who directs the ecological cremation and burial services in Mississauga, Ontario, and provide the call to the carriers of coffin, which Howard and others heard.

“This is our fifth occasion of this week,” Romagnoli said about unresated burials. “It happens to the elderly, to people in mid -age and unfortunately, this week, a baby, a baby, who also cares.”

Not all funeral directors accept unresated organizations, nor all cemeteries, given the rate paid by the municipalities. Romagnoli said: “This cemetery is the only cemetery that would accept this individual.”

In Ontario, the number of unresolved bodies has triggered the pandemic. In 2024, the main coroner reported that 1,436 bodies were not claimed. Most of them (1,023) were in Toronto.

Raymond Wieer has been voluntary as a goalkeeper since the pandemic. He is a genealogist, explaining how his interest in families made him want to appear to those who have no family.

“It means that people who are supposedly labeled as not claimed have a family, even if it is not a chosen family,” he said.

“It is a family of strangers who join in a common purpose to show respect to this person and put them to rest with dignity.”

In general, says Wieser, not many people come to burials, maybe three or four. He says that Wednesday’s goodbye was special: they had too many stick carriers.

“He shows that people really care.”