Washington State Veterans Cemetery honors remains of unclaimed veterans, including Civil War soldier at annual Memorial Day Service

Hundreds convened at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery in Medical Lake for its annual Memorial Day service to honor and remember veterans who have died. It was a solemn day of remembrance when even the sky darkened with heavy clouds to block the harsh May sun.

“Memorial Day is just one day set aside for the specific purpose of honoring those that have given their lives in defense of our great nation,” said Solomon Gilbert, deputy director of Washington’s Department of Veterans Affairs. “It is a day to remember their sacrifice and their courage to be willing to give everything. We remember our loved ones; they are friends, our family, our fellow service members.

“The calendar says we set aside one special day, but our hearts and minds know we remember them always.”

More than 10,000 people are laid to rest at the cemetery: veterans, their spouses and, in some cases, their children. Some 900 service members are buried with no living loved ones to claim remains. Some are veterans and their spouses who spent decades unclaimed and unburied around Washington before the Medical Lake cemetery assumed responsibility.

“They sit idle on a shelf with no marker that they’ve ever even walked the earth,” said cemetery director Rudy Lopez.

Each year at the ceremony, Lopez highlights around a dozen of these recently assumed remains of veterans – unclaimed, unrecognized and stories untold, until the cemetery and multiple research partners find out who they were. It’s the cemetery’s mission, Lopez said, to provide a final resting space at the 120-acre grounds, dotted with perfectly spaced, nearly identical white headstones.

“There’s a lot of purpose to what we do,” Lopez said.

This year’s batch of nine veterans included the remains of a Civil War soldier, William O’Neal and wife Elizabeth O’Neal. With no living relatives, the two sat unclaimed for over 100 years in matching copper urns at a funeral home in Everett. The cemetery also received remains of a Purple Heart recipient William Harmas and wife Rosemary Harmas. William served in World War II, and came to the cemetery from Walla Walla along with a Purple Heart medallion and a piece of shrapnel that earned him one of the highest medals in the military.

“They arrived to us from various corners of the state with no family to accompany them,” Lopez said at the ceremony. “It is our honor to receive them into our care, providing a final resting place that is respectful, a burial that is properly marked with a grave headstone, forever honoring their service to our nation so that they may never be forgotten.”

O’Neal enlisted in the Union army in Ohio at the age of 18. After a month in basic training, O’Neal went to battle in defense of Cincinnati. After a year of service, Confederate forces captured O’Neal and he spent over three years as a prisoner of war. The O’Neals married after the war, and both died in 1919. William was 73, Elizabeth 63.

William O’Neal will be the third Civil War veteran laid to rest at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery.

At the ceremony, Kyla Albertson was struck with emotion while thinking of the thousands of veterans’ remains that are unclaimed.

“It’s heartbreaking to be buried without any family,” she said tearfully.

She comes from a large military family. Her father served in the Air Force, her kids’ paternal grandfather and their stepmother both served in the Navy and, most recently, her son is stationed in Japan, a corpsman in the Navy.

“We’re a very large military family, and I’m super passionate about this country for some reason,” she said.

She frequently spends Memorial Day at the ceremony, “irritated” that many spend the holiday camping or boating or shopping for deals. “People lose sight of what it’s actually about,” she said.

Albertson bought a large bouquet of wildflowers that kids in her family separate, leaving a stem at as many graves as possible, though she doesn’t know anyone personally buried there.

“These poor people, some don’t have flowers, some don’t have any family,” she said, thinking of her own son. “We’re lucky we have a village.”

Despite the solemn nature of the day, Albertson oozed with gratitude for the times she lives in and the accessibility to her son around 5,000 miles away. She texts with him frequently and can see his face whenever they video chat on the phone. He visited recently for his brother’s wedding, even planning an engagement himself with a woman he met in Japan.

Though tears were flowing in her family, they also found unity in the grief. Everyone present at the cemetery shares a bond, Albertson said, born from respect for those who serve. The collective energy was palpable.

“The unity the military and patriotism brings,” she said, “it makes me emotional.”