She had no one to bury her. Then the Montco coroner and Philadelphia clergy got involved.

Editor's Note: This news organization has been telling the stories of unclaimed dead and their impact on the community since 2019. As of this publication, the cremated remains of at least 79 dead have found final resting places. But hundreds more remain unclaimed in Bucks and Montgomery counties. Our original "Unclaimed" stories can be accessed on our websites. They include updated names, stories and statuses of the unclaimed dead in Bucks and Montgomery counties.

Rosellen Smith planned to spend eternity with her husband, George, who died nearly a decade ago.

She secured a final resting place beside his grave at a Bucks County Roman Catholic cemetery. Her name and birthdate were already etched in the granite headstone next to his.

But those final arrangements were something Rosellen apparently kept to herself. When she died six months ago, it appeared she would become another unclaimed body left in the custody of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office.

Smith was living at St. Mary Manor, an assisted living community in Lansdale until her death May 23. The hospital where she died reached out to her listed next-of-kin contact, a cousin, who declined to accept responsibility for her body.

Searching for someone to claim Rosellen Smith's body

With no one to claim her body, Smith was transferred to the coroner's office, where Adam Shellenhamer opened an investigation to search for other family who might be willing to make final arrangements.

The Montgomery County deputy coroner quickly learned the names of Smith’s parents, Ronald and Ruth Carroll. Her mother’s maiden name was Gildea. The 1950 U.S. Census revealed that Smith had two sisters.

One of them, Joan Carroll, entered religious life at age 18 and served as a teacher and principal mostly for Philadelphia Archdiocesan schools.

Rosellen, though, eventually married George E. Smith. They lived in North Wales, Montgomery County, until his 2013 death at age 74. The couple had no children.

The three-sentence online obituary Shellenhamer found for George provided no details other than the name of a Lansdale funeral home. An employee there confirmed he was cremated and Rosellen picked up his ashes.

But the funeral home had no record of what Rosellen did with those ashes.

Shellenhamer did more searching online and found the obituary for her sister, Joan, who died in 2018. It provided a small but important detail. Rosellen was listed as the last living sister.

He also found the grave for George E. Smith located at the St. John Neumann Cemetery in Chalfont. An employee there confirmed Rosellen Smith had the plot next to her husband. It was good news. Sort of.

“We knew this was where we wanted her to end up, but it was a matter of how,” Shellenhamer said.

Call it 'devine intervention'

Little did he know, that divine intervention was about to intercede.

A few weeks after Smith's death, a teacher's aide at a Philadelphia Archdiocesan school called Sister Mary Raphael, the outreach coordinator for Basilica Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

The woman learned that a friend, who recently died gave her name as an emergency contact. The hospital contacted her to see if she wanted to take responsibility for his final arrangements. Could Sister Raphael help?

The request was a first for her, Sister Raphael said.

In Roman Catholic teachings, respect and reverence for the dead is a core belief for followers. Catholics believe that the soul is immortal and does not depend on the physical body for resurrection and life everlasting.

It is why burying the dead in a sacred place is considered the most appropriate way to honor and express faith and hope in the resurrection of the body, according to the Vatican.

Sister Raphael took the woman's request to the Rev. Gerald Dennis Gill, director of the Archdiocese Office for Divine Worship. The nun knew that he occasionally arranged burials for unclaimed cremated remains in Philadelphia.

Gill accepted and secured a donated cemetery plot for the remains at an Archdiocesan cemetery. Raphael contacted Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, where the man was taken, and it agreed to waive the $700 cremation fee.

Sister Raphael was finalizing those final arrangements for the man in early August, when Shellenhamer approached her with a request of his own.

Would the Philadelphia Archdiocese be willing to assist with another unclaimed person? The deputy coroner explained how Rosellen Smith had a grave, but no one to pay to open it.

Sister Raphael brought Smith’s plight to the attention of Gill. The archdiocese owns the St. John Neumann cemetery, which agreed to waive the fee to open the grave. Montgomery County again waived its cremation fee.

Husband and wife reunited after death

Earlier this month, Gill traveled from his Center City church to Norristown to collect the ashes of another unclaimed stranger. He took Rosellen Smith to the Chalfont cemetery where she was quietly reunited with her husband.

Gill also expressed surprised at learning there are more than 100 unclaimed dead in Philadelphia suburbs whose final resting place is a storage room in a government building.

“We want to make sure the dead are buried,” Gill said. “Anything we can do to support that and make that happen.”

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Montco woman's ashes unclaimed. How did she reach final resting place?