Nonprofit Provides Funerals for Infants Who Died

At the Garden of Innocence in Fresno, California, a doll sits atop a child’s grave.
(Credit: cencalilife.com)

It’s an idea that is almost incomprehensible to most of us: the bodies of infants who died, left abandoned in hospitals and county morgues. And it’s a testament to our combined sensibilities that it is the kind of thing that we rarely encounter in our lives. But as Elissa Davey of Carlsbad, California, knows it happens more often than we might think.

Elissa is the founder of Garden of Innocence, a nonprofit that provides burials for children whose bodies were never claimed. She started the organization in 1999 after learning on the news about the discovery an infant’s body at a college campus near her home. Davey called the coroner’s office and offered to claim the child. She was told she could only do so if she provided the infant a dignified burial. So that’s exactly what she did.  

Since then Davey has assembled a network of volunteers who donate their time, skills, and love to provide burials for hundreds of unclaimed children across the state. Most of them, surprisingly, were abandoned in hospitals — stillborn or premature infants who died and were simply left behind. Others were victims of child abuse. Still others were just anonymous unclaimed bodies at a county morgue. But they all had one thing in common. If no one intervened, the coroners office would have no choice but to cremate their bodies and bury them in an unmarked grave. 

Volunteers mourn at a Garden of Innocence service in Fresno, California
(Credit: cencalife.com)

Davey’s volunteers come from all walks of life. But they share a single goal — to acknowledge the deaths of children the world forgot. In Fort Worth, Texas, April Wilkerson heard about the organization and began crafting wooden urns for the children’s ashes. Since she first posted a video about her efforts on YouTube in 2014, Davey has received hundreds of urns from people all over the United States. Others donate hand-quilted shrouds, memorial songs, and most importantly, their time. Volunteers come from all over California to attend services for these abandoned infants. In addition to love, each child receives a name and a grave marker before being placed in the ground. 

As of 2016, Davey’s group holds memorial services and burials 11 locations throughout California. The group is working to expand the service nationwide.