Students stand in as family to honor veteran
John T. Fitzmaurice died on Nov. 6, with no relative to claim his body. But in death, the 68-year-old Chelsea veteran found an unlikely family.
Before he was laid to rest yesterday at Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Winchendon, Fitzmaurice was given a full funeral Mass in the chapel of Catholic Memorial School, an all-boys, college-prep school in West Roxbury, which partnered with the Lazarus Ministry and Robert J. Lawler & Crosby Funeral Home in West Roxbury.
The school’s students Fitzmaurice never met volunteered to be his pallbearers, sing hymns and read from Scripture. The school’s president, Peter Folan, standing in for the former Army private’s nextof-kin, was presented with the flag that had draped his coffin.
“For our students and the Catholic Memorial community to be his family today was a privilege,” Folan said. “Our students know that by the grace of God, we have the life that we have.”
Funeral director Bill Lawler said he often receives calls from hospitals, nursing homes and other agencies when a patient with no living relative dies.
“We get in touch with the Department of Veterans Services so he can have a proper burial,” Lawler said.
The department gives a small stipend to defray the cost. But, for privacy reasons, the hospital and Veterans Services usually provide few details about the person: In Fitzmaurice’s case, his name, age and hometown, the branch of the military in which he served, his rank and the date of his death.
The funeral home and one of the school’s board members approached administrators with the idea of a funeral “as a way for our boys to honor veterans and demonstrate the care and compassion we have to show for those who might be living on the margins,” Folan said.
“We have a great academic program, but we care equally about shaping the character of our young men,” he said. “Educating the heart and mind — teaching our students to live out their faith through action and service — is at the core of what we do.”
Senior Class President Will Padden, one of Fitzmaurice’s pallbearers, comes from a family of veterans. His father served as a Marine in Kuwait during the Gulf War. His grandfather was a Marine in Vietnam.
“For me to be there as part of John’s family was pretty special because I know I would want someone to be there for them,” said Padden, who has applied to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. “John is certainly now part of our family, and will be forever.”