The BulleTin • Sunday, June 27, 2021 D3
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Brad Byrholdt, general manager of Bend Funeral Homes, sits in the mausoleum at Deschutes Memorial Chapel and Gardens in Bend.
Remains
Continued from D1
“These remains are some-
one’s somebody,” Bryrholdt
said. “We keep the remains
in our care because that’s the
smartest and safest. We do care
what we do, and we don’t want
to upset people.”
It is unknown precisely how
many of these unclaimed re-
mains exist in Oregon. There’s
a state fund to reimburse fu-
neral homes the cost of crema-
tion. With the pandemic, the
list is not up to date and the
Oregon Mortuary and Cem-
etery Board hasn’t had an ad-
ministrator for a few months.
There’s a backlog currently in
the process.
The Knights of Columbus work
Joseph Schaecher, one of the
men who helped gather the
unclaimed remains in South-
ern Oregon, said the idea to
bury the unclaimed started to
take root in 2017. At the end of
the 2020 Oregon State Knights
of Columbus convention, the
idea took shape: Various coun-
cils would contact their local
funeral homes and obtain any
unclaimed remains to be bur-
ied in a designated area at the
Mt. Calvary Catholic Ceme-
tery.
The remains were cataloged.
Photos were taken. And each
was placed in a tube for easy
removal should a family mem-
ber claim them, said Schaecher,
who is a district deputy for re-
gion 9, Grants Pass to Ashland.
Schaecher collected 66 remains
from a Medford funeral home
that had been in storage for
more than 10 years. The bal-
ance came from Klamath, he
said.
One of the unclaimed re-
mains had a note attached that
said to save the remains for a
daughter who never came.
Two urns found in a forest
and returned to the mortuary
were unclaimed. Another was
a veteran, who the Knights
gave a full military service with
taps and a color guard.
And yet another had been in
storage since 1964 in Medford.
All these and others that
were received were transferred
for burial, Schaecher said.
“They all had names but
two,” Schaecher said. “They
were in limbo. It was a really
wonderful experience. I got
kind of emotional.”
The Knights hope to do this
program again, Schaecher said.
State program helps pay
for unclaimed
The Oregon Indigent Dis-
position Program was created
in 1993 and is funded by the
Legislature. Typically, the fund-
ing for unclaimed remains falls
on the county. The fund pays
for the disposition of a body
for someone who doesn’t have
a relative or someone with a
legal right to claim a deceased
person’s body, according to the
law.
Every effort needs to be
taken to find a relative or
someone who has the legal
authority over the deceased
person’s body, including so-
cial media, genealogy web-
sites, people-search sites or a
newspaper notice. The funeral
homes are reimbursed by the
state.
“When someone dies, it’s an
involved program with a lot of
layers,” said Wally Ordeman,
Oregon Funeral Directors As-
sociation. “When someone
dies without a county morgue,
the body goes to a mortuary.
The funeral homes typically
rotate for medical examiner
calls.”
Funeral homes provide this
service for their communities,
but it can be awkward, said Or-
deman, a fifth-generation fu-
neral business owner.
“The funeral homes are al-
most forced to take on the re-
sponsibility of holding onto the
remains.”
e
Reporter: 541-633-2117,
sroig@bendbulletin.com
Estacada community stands strong in face of tragedies, pandemic
BY JAIMIE DING
The Oregonian
Estacada High School’s grad-
uating seniors stride through
the halls of their town’s ele-
mentary and middle schools
every spring, retracing the
footsteps of their youth to
cheers from community mem-
bers and former teachers.
But the schools were quiet as
classes closed last spring, with
COVID-19 pausing the tradi-
tion for the first time in recent
memory.
The schools’ silence marked
the first of several hardships
faced by the small city in rural
Clackamas County over the
past year.
Devastating wildfires would
eclipse COVID-19 as Estaca-
da’s most pressing concern, if
only temporarily, and one of
the worst ice storms in years
left the community without
power for days during the dead
of winter.
Then, this spring, a beloved
middle school teacher died of
the virus and three teenagers
were killed in a Memorial Day
car crash that left the commu-
nity reeling.
Hundreds attended a me-
morial for the teens, the setting
sun illuminating the mourners’
faces as they shared heartfelt
stories of those they lost.
And the following week,
Estacada’s 2021 graduates
gathered for their walk — out-
doors, and without the usual
high-fives and hugs. But after
a difficult year, the celebration
was a hopeful sight for resi-
dents who pride themselves on
their independence, pride and
fierce community spirit.
‘This is going to get ugly’
Lisa Homan could tell right
away.
A former volunteer fire-
fighter, she knew the smoke
cloud visible Sept. 8 from
Oregon 224 signaled a wild-
land blaze.And when she ran
into Estacada Mayor Sean
Drinkwine at the city’s post of-
fice that morning, she told him
to prepare for the worst.
“Sean, this is going to get
ugly,” she told him.
It did.
The Riverside fire would in
the ensuing days grow to more
than 130,000 acres and engulf
Clackamas County.
The blaze moved to Estaca-
da’s doorstep, prompting city-
wide evacuation orders and
burning homes and a church
on the outskirts of town.
“You go 100 yards outside of
town, you can see the devasta-
tion,” Drinkwine said.
Fire officials had their hands
full. But the overwhelming
sentiment in Estacada is that
citizen firefighters — not pro-
fessionals — saved the town.
Residents banded together
in impromptu teams to save
homes: using bulldozers, trac-
tors, water trucks and some-
times shovels alone to protect
their livelihoods and land.
It’s this self-sufficient atti-
tude that defines Estacada, res-
idents said.
Marvin Flora, owner of
Lew’s Drive-In, initially fol-
lowed Level 3 evacuation or-
ders and left town.
But he quickly heard that
residents had stayed behind
to fight the flames, and he re-
turned the next day to prepare
hot meals for those in need.
Flora took to Facebook,
seeking volunteers to drive
food to residents’ homes, and
was met with an overwhelming
response. More than 30 people
called the first day, and at one
point, Flora was directing 14
drivers at once.
By the time the worst dan-
ger had passed, his restaurant
workers were handing out
hundreds of meals each day.
‘They don’t give
you a handbook’
Sitting on the banks of the
Clackamas River just 30 miles
from downtown Portland, Es-
tacada was once a bustling tim-
ber industry hub. The reces-
sion in the early 1980s hit the
state’s timber economy hard,
affecting Estacada and other
communities dependent on
natural resources.
But Estacada invested in
manufacturing, and its indus-
trial park is expanding. Busi-
nesses in the glass, electric,
trucking and metal fabrication
industries have moved to town,
and a cross-laminated timber
manufacturing business is set-
ting up shop soon, Drinkwine
said.
The city has also become a
popular summertime destina-
tion with a thriving arts scene
and festivals that draw attend-
ees from throughout the state.
And while a 2019 estimate
put the city’s population at un-
der 3,500, Drinkwine expects
upcoming U.S. Census Bureau
figures will be much higher.
“You can just count the de-
velopments that have moved
into this area, and you’ll see a
bigger number than that,” he
said.
Estacada’s tumultuous year
has kept its top elected offi-
cial working around the clock
— not counting his work as a
small business owner alongside
his wife, Mary Whitney. He
said the past year has been far
and away the most difficult in
his five-year tenure as mayor.
“They don’t give you a hand-
book on how to deal with fires
that nearly burn your city up
and ice storms that set you
back months in the power
grid,” Drinkwine said. “They
don’t tell you what to do when
a pandemic rips through your
city, and there’s just no easy an-
swer for that one.”
When businesses were hit
hard by the COVID-19 shut-
down, Drinkwine advocated
for their reopening in the face
of state restrictions. Estacada
residents, many of whom are
independent business owners,
were calling him two to three
times a night with concerns
about how they were going to
survive financially, he said in
December.
Valerie Ballantyne, owner
of Hitchin’ Post Pizza and the
Watering Hole Saloon, said
her businesses have been shut
down four times — because
of COVID-19, wildfires, ice
storms and again for the virus.
She’s lost a lot of money, but
she’s surviving.
“Every little town in Amer-
ica right now is facing harder
and harder times,” Drinkwine
said. “And I think people got to
reach out and keep these rural
communities, because I think
they make a difference.”
United in grief
One was a confident, ener-
getic middle-schooler. Another,
a goofball and class clown. The
third, a friend who “gave the
best hugs in the world.”
Reagan Alves, 14; Jordan
Stores, 17; and Zackary Briant,
18, were killed in a Memorial
Day car crash, marking the latest
tragedy to hit home in Estacada.
Friends, family members,
neighbors, teachers, coaches
and teammates were among
those who attended the vigil.
But many attendees who didn’t
know the teens showed up as
well — to grieve together, hold a
hand or light a candle.
“One of the beautiful things
about our town is that no-
body’s going to let somebody
go through anything alone,” Es-
tacada Community Watch Pres-
ident Brandy Litkie said. “I think
it’s a heaviness that’s being felt
right now, but eventually we’ll
find a way to get through it.”
The deaths were the latest
blow to a community rattled by
the recent deaths of other resi-
dents, including Samantha Fox,
a 46-year-old teacher who died
of COVID-19 in May. Fox, who
taught sixth- and seventh-grade
language arts, spent more than
20 years teaching in the school
district.
Hulsey, 45, said she and Fox
were hired the same year and
taught together for many more.
“I saw a lot of support in,
you know, just being allowed to
publicly grieve,” Hulsey said. “I
don’t have to hide it and I don’t
have to not deal with it.”