Land set aside for pauper burials is so very vulnerable in our changing world. Living relatives are often difficult or impossible to locate, and neither the public or private sector readily accept the responsibility to care for old forgotten cemeteries.

We who believe that every life is sacred, must continue to remind ourselves and society that in this world and after death, God cares for us. Our fellow human beings have gone before us to face the realities of eternity. We make no judgments, but commend them to the mercy of our loving Creator. We may not have known them personally, but they were someone's Mother, Father, Grandparent, or neighbor. It has been written: To live and die alone is a human tragedy, but not to be remembered and mourned…after earthly life…is an ugly blemish on human dignity. These persons, though their earthly lives ended in loneliness and poverty, in unique ways unknown to us, they did share in the divine creation and eternal destiny that is common to our humanity.

Preserving Cook County Cemetery and continuing research will help to insure that those persons who were homeless in life will not be homeless in death.