AUGUSTA, Maine — Former U.S. Marine Gerry Brooks died alone in a Maine nursing home, abandoned and all but forgotten. Then the funeral home posted a message asking if anyone would like to serve as a pallbearer or simply attend his funeral.
Within minutes, volunteers were turned away to carry his coffin.
A bagpiper came forward to play at the service. A pilot offered to perform a flyover. Military groups across the state promised a proper farewell.
Hundreds of people who knew nothing about the 86-year-old except his name showed up at one sizzling afternoon and gave Brooks a final salute with full military honors Thursday at the Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Augusta.
Patriot Guard riders on motorcycles escorted his hearse along the 40-mile route from the funeral home in Belfast, Maine, to the cemetery. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars paid tribute with a 21-gun salute. Volunteers held American flags next to the casket as a crane hoisted a huge flag over the cemetery entrance.
Some saluted as they passed. Others sang The Marines’ Hymn.
“It’s an honor for us to be able to do this,” said Jim Roberts, commander of the VFW post in Belfast. “There is so much negativity in the world. This is something people can feel good about and get behind. It’s just absolutely amazing.” He said Brooks’ son, granddaughter and son-in-law came to the funeral but said nothing during the service.
Roberts said the VFW gets calls a few times a year about a deceased veteran with no family or a veteran who is unwilling to make funeral arrangements. But “we will always be there.” Like other veterans who helped Thursday, he didn’t know Brooks.
So many groups volunteered to participate in the tribute that there wasn’t enough room to fit them into the 20-minute funeral service, said Katie Riposta, the funeral director who made the call for help last week.
“It renews your faith in humanity,” she said.
More than 8 million of living American veterans are 65 years or older, almost half of the veteran population. They are predominantly men. This is evident from a report from the US Census Bureau last year. As this generation dies, it was said, their collective memory of war experiences will “go down in history.”
Much about Brooks’ life is unknown.
He was a widow and lived in Augusta. He died May 18, less than a week after entering a nursing home, Riposta said. A cause of death was not released.
The funeral home and authorities reached out to his next of kin, but no one was willing to come forward or take responsibility for his body, she said.
“It sounds like he was a good person, but I don’t know anything about his life,” Riposta said, noting that after Brooks’ death, a woman contacted the funeral home to say he once took her in when she wasn’t had another place to go. go, without details.
“It doesn’t matter if he ever served or made the military his career,” she said. “He still deserves to be respected and not alone.”
The crowd on Thursday wasn’t all strangers, and it turns out Brooks wasn’t either.
Victoria Abbott, executive director of the Bread of Life shelter in Augusta, said he came to eat at their soup kitchen every day, always ready to make “dad jokes” and make the staff laugh. He had a favorite table.
“Your typical 80-year-old dad makes jokes every day,” Abbott said. “He was really great to have around. He was part of the soup kitchen family.”
But most people there Thursday met him too late. The memorial book posted online by Direct Cremation of Maine that helped arrange the funeral included well wishes from a few strangers.
“Sir,” one began, ending with “Semper Fi.”
The two others, a married couple, thanked Brooks for his service. “We all deserve the love, kindness and respect when we are called home. I hope you lived a beautiful life full of love, kindness, dreams and hope,” they wrote.
They added: “Thank you to everyone who will make this gentleman’s service a decent, well-deserved farewell.”
Linda Laweryson, who served in the Marines, said this was the second funeral in just over a year she attended for a veteran who died alone. Everyone deserves to die with dignity and be buried with dignity, she said.
Laweryson read a poem during the funeral service written by a combat Marine looking back at the place where Marines graduate from boot camp.
“I walked across the old parade ground, but I was not alone,” the poem reads. “I walked through the old parade ground and knew I was home.”
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.