'Most of their deaths go unmarked': Outreach groups hold funerals for homeless and marginalized

Helping homeless and marginalized people while they're alive is a key part of what homeless advocacy groups do but assisting with memorializing them after they die is another big part of the work for two Okanagan organizations. 

The First United Church and Kelowna's Gospel Mission in downtown Kelowna, B.C., both hold funeral services for people who might otherwise not get any sort of memorial. 

When a person who is homeless or living in social housing dies, often a notice of death will go to family members and possibly their friends living in close proximity to them, either on the street or in shelters or some sort of housing. 

"There's not a story written about them because they were a business person or they were in the Olympics or they were this or they were that," Kelowna's Gospel Mission chaplain Lester Mesenbrink told CBC's Sarah Penton.  

"Most of their deaths go unmarked by the rest of society."

Cheryl Perry, a minister at First United, has performed a number of ceremonies during her 16 years with the church. 

"Like it is for any of us when we go to a service for someone who's closer to our age, it's a real reminder of our mortality," she said. 

Because she often didn't know the person, or at least didn't know them well, Perry invites people who did know them to share memories and stories. 

While that's nice for the people at the service, Mesenbrink said families of these people are often unable to be there, which means they don't get to hear the stories their friends tell. 

"These people are somebody's child, and their parents may be hundreds and hundreds of miles away," he said. "Maybe the body has been shipped back or the ashes have been shipped back, but they don't know that this person had friends that cared for them."

Danny Scullion, who is homeless, said that while it's nice to hear different stories from friends, it is wearing having to go to memorial services so frequently, because so many of his friends are dying.

Feelings of fatigue around going to memorial services is not uncommon among homeless people, according to Mesenbrink.

"They've said so many goodbyes," he said. "Even though their friend is the one that the service is for, they won't show up. They'll come and tell you how much the person meant that they don't want to show up at another service to say goodbye."

"You wouldn't know how bad my heart feels? Try losing a friend every three weeks," Scullion said. "I just don't want to see it anymore because it hurts so much."