They were tiny, these boxes. White with pink, blue and yellow sprays of carnations.
It was a gravesite ceremony with a funeral program that had no names, just the hour laid to rest, the place of internment and the words “In loving memory of Little Treasures.”
The tiny bodies in the caskets were abandoned babies, and the nonprofit Little Treasures has been recognizing the infants with burial in Los Gatos Memorial Park since 2005. The group has several founders and was the idea of Virginia Jones, a supervisor for the branch of the American Medical Response ambulance company that serves Hollister.
Abandoned babies include those left in public places, such as parks or garbage cans, and those that might have been stillborn at a hospital, Jones said. The nonprofit provides an alternative to the more anonymous cremation counties give bodies unclaimed by families.
“Every life is precious in God’s eyes, and we’re here out of love and respect for these little babies,” said Adele Freedman, 62, as she clutched a set of yellow roses wrapped in white ribbon.
This was her first time attending a Little Treasures gravesite service but Freedman, who was a funeral director for five years, knew first-hand about goodbye rituals.
She was the second person to stand up and touch the tiny boxes, laying roses next to each one and kissing her hand before placing it on the last casket with pink carnations.
Most in the audience had some connection to death in their daily work. Two paramedics and four firefighters stood in uniform at the back of the small crowd. Other attendees were from the county coroner’s office.
Often, those in uniform are asked to be pallbearers for a baby they never knew, carrying the tiny box across the grass laden with tombstones to a table in front of a small audience.
A pastor shared a prayer and a few short readings. There was no mention of the babies’ lives. They were infants who never had a kindergarten picture taken and wouldn’t graduate from high school.
“I always cry. I can’t help it,” said Battalion Chief Kendall Pearson, who works for the Santa Clara County Fire Department. Pearson was a pallbearer for a tiny box marked with pink carnations.
“I think probably one of the most difficult parts of the fire service is we understand the fragility of life and we see this happen,” he said.
Many in the service—including Pearson—are parents. That makes standing at this gravesite service that much harder because they’re thinking about their own children, the battalion chief said.
These tiny boxes bring the nonprofit’s burial count to about 40 babies, explained Jones. Even she did not know much about the babies’ stories. One was left in a mobile home in San Jose, she told the Free Lance before the service. The others were left unclaimed at hospitals.
Jones has two daughters of her own. She says she doesn’t judge because she doesn’t know the position the parents where in when they decided they couldn’t find a final resting place for their babies. If she was in the same position, she hopes that someone out there would help, Jones said.
Lorna Pierce, a forensic anthropologist for the Santa Clara County’s Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office, was among those attending the Little Treasures gravesite service for the first time.
“I thought it was important for me to come and say goodbye to these little babies,” she said.
Pierce, who wore all black expect for a red blazer and lipstick, would not say whether she had worked with any of the bodies now in caskets partially hidden under sprays of flowers.
The nonprofit started after Jones was helping film a section of an “Every 15 minutes” program—meant to encourage teens not to drink or text and drive—in a coroner’s office. She asked about some bags on a little shelf to one side and learned they were babies.
Jones later called back to clarify what that meant and learned the infants were unclaimed. She asked if she could bury them.
An article in a newspaper about the first service caused community members to send money, blankets and clothing and then they decided “to do something with this” and got a nonprofit going, Jones said.
Darling-Fischer Mortuaries and the Los Gatos Memorial Park donated caskets and a large section of the cemetery for the group to use free of charge, Jones said. She and another board member of the nonprofit do the tasks typically performed by family.
The morning of the service, they dress the babies if that’s possible, wrap them in a blanket and put a beanie baby or teddy bear inside the casket “so they have a little friend with them,” she said.
Organizers hold a small gravesite service and have had priests, pastors and rabbis preside over the babies, Jones said. Usually, singers, harpists or guitarists accompany them.
We don’t know what kind of backgrounds the babies come from so we try to do a small, little service,” she said.
It is not an easy process, but Jones also won’t use the word sad.
“I won’t say that I feel sad,” she said. “I’m grateful to be able to be in a position where I’m able to do this for the community.”
To donate stuffed animals or blankets, email Jones at [email protected] or donate to the nonprofit’s crowdfunding page: gofundme.com/ysfm62t. To learn more about the group, check out their website, preciousliltreasures.org or facebook page, facebook.com/Little-Treasures-122784888057581/info/?tab=page_info.
