As an adult, Michael Garcia wanted to make up for lost time. He spent his teen years caught up in the foster care system. A fireworks mishap took several of his fingertips. Surgeries followed; after that, painkillers; pills led to heroin addiction, homelessness, then prison. On the inside, he sought out education as a way to make something of himself. He gained his release.
After years of addiction and a battle with Hepatitis C, Garcia eventually made his way to Real Change in 2003, where he became a vendor. In 2004, he joined the Real Change staff as a vendor field organizer. It seemed he was moving in the direction he had long desired. Then in April 2009, after falling asleep with an undiagnosed concussion, he died.
More than 18 months later, on Mon., Nov. 29 Garcia was laid to rest, his ashes interred as part of the county's Indigent Remains Program.
Garcia had company. A total of 205 people -- each with stories, many of which may go untold -- were buried in an afternoon ceremony at Mt. Olivet (American Memorial) Cemetery in Renton. The program, administered locally by the King County Medical Examiner's Office, exists to provide proper burials for individuals who have died in the county but whose next of kin cannot be reached or cannot pay for funeral expenses. The office searches for relatives for 21 days after someone's death.
The ashes of each unclaimed individual are held in separate urns in the medical examiner's office. When the ashes of 200 or so people are gathered, the urns are collected and placed in a shared plot. If a family member requests the remains at a later date, they can be recovered. Ceremonies occur roughly every 18 months.
As of late November's burial, none of the remains, including those of Garcia, had been claimed.