In October 2015, six students from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy carried the coffins of three veterans whom no one came to claim at the Detroit County morgue.
They had no family. They had no one to mourn them. So the group of teenagers put on dark suits, white gloves and decided to be that family for an afternoon, at a ceremony at Michigan’s Great Lakes National Cemetery. They called their initiative the Arimathean Pallbearer Ministry, in honor of Joseph of Arimathea, who cared for the body of Jesus Christ when no one else did.
More than a decade later, the program is still alive. John Dawson, the school’s director of pastoral service, says that each year between seven and eight students volunteer for this quiet work, without cameras or applause. They work alongside local funeral homes to ensure that no veteran ends their story alone. Sometimes dignity needs no witnesses: only someone willing to carry the weight.