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EndNotes

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  3. Never too late…

Never too late…

A man is silhouetted as he walks on a road during a sunset near the town of Khoiniki, 300 kilometers (187 miles) south-east of the capital Minsk, Belarus, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. (Sergei Grits / Associated Press)
A man is silhouetted as he walks on a road during a sunset near the town of Khoiniki, 300 kilometers (187 miles) south-east of the capital Minsk, Belarus, Wednesday, March 23, 2011. (Sergei Grits / Associated Press)

…to do the right thing.

A Connecticut slave, known as “Mr. Fortune,” died in 1798, after a life of known hardship. His owner, a physician, had Mr. Fortune’s bones boiled in order to study anatomy. The skeleton was given to a Waterbury museum by one of the physician’s descendants in 1933. They were displayed from the 1940s until 1970.

Finally, Mr. Fortune will be appropriately memorialized and buried. His remains will lie in state in Hartford; police will escort the remains to Waterbury where Rev Amy D. Welin of St. John’s Episcopal Church will preside over the funeral.

“Fortune will be buried near contemporaries who never would have spoken to him or viewed him as human," said Mullins, president of the southern Connecticut chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians. He noted the use and display of his bones was done without his consent.

May Mr. Fortune finally rest in peace.

(S-R archive photo)

Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.