An American veteran has died in a nursing home. Hundreds of strangers said goodbye

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Former U.S. Marine Gerry Brooks died alone in a Maine nursing home, abandoned and almost forgotten. Then the funeral home posted a notice asking if anyone would serve as a pallbearer or just attend his burial.

Within minutes, he was refusing volunteers to carry his coffin.

A bagpiper showed up to play at the service. A pilot offered to do a flyover. Military groups across the state have promised a proper farewell.

Hundreds of people who knew nothing about the 86-year-old beyond his name showed up on a sweltering afternoon and gave Brooks a final salute with full military honors Thursday at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery from Maine to Augusta.

Patriot Guard Riders on motorcycles escorted his hearse the 40-mile route from the funeral home in Belfast, Maine, to the cemetery. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars paid their respects with a 21-gun salute. Volunteers waved American flags next to the casket while a crane hoisted a huge flag above the cemetery entrance.

Some greeted as they passed. Others sang the Marine Corps anthem.

“It's an honor for us to be able to do this,” said Jim Roberts, VFW post commander in Belfast. There is so much negativity in the world. It’s something that people can feel good about and rally around. It's just absolutely wonderful. He said Brooks' son, granddaughter and son-in-law came to the funeral but did not speak during the service.

Roberts said the VFW is called a few times a year about a deceased veteran who has no family or someone who is unwilling to handle funeral arrangements. But we will always be here. Like other veterans who helped Thursday, he didn't know Brooks.

So many groups volunteered to pay their respects that there wasn't enough room to accommodate them in the 20-minute funeral service, said Katie Riposta, the funeral director who made the call to 'help last week.

It renews your faith in humanity, she said.

More than 8 million living U.S. veterans are 65 or older, nearly half of the veteran population. They are mainly men. That’s according to a U.S. Census Bureau report from last year. As this generation dies, he says, the collective memory of wartime experiences will pass into history.

Much is unknown about Brooks' life.

He was a widower and lived in Augusta. He died May 18, less than a week after entering a nursing home, Riposta said. The cause of death has not been released.

The funeral home and authorities contacted his next of kin, but no one would come forward or take responsibility for his body, she said.

It seems like he was a good person, but I don't know anything about his life, Riposta said, noting that after Brooks' death, a woman contacted the funeral home to say he had taken her in one day. times when she had no other place to go, with no details.

It doesn't matter whether he ever served or had a career in the military, she said. He always deserves to be respected and not alone.

Thursday's crowd wasn't entirely foreign and it turned out Brooks wasn't part of it either.

Victoria Abbott, executive director of the Bread of Life shelter in Augusta, said he comes to eat at their soup kitchen every day, always ready to make dad jokes and make the staff smile. He had a favorite table.

Your quintessential 80-year-old dad jokes every day, Abbott said. It was really great to have people with him. He was part of the soup kitchen family.

But most of the people present on Thursday met him too late. The memorial book posted online by Direct Cremation of Maine, which helped arrange the burial, contained well wishes from a few strangers.

Sir, we started and ended with Semper Fi.

The other two, a couple, thanked Brooks for his service. We all deserve love, kindness and respect when we are called home. I hope you lived a beautiful life full of love, kindness, dreams and hope, they wrote.

They added: Thank you to everyone who will make this service for gentlemen a well-deserved farewell.

Linda Laweryson, who served in the Marines, said it was the second funeral in just over a year that she had attended for a veteran who died alone. Everyone deserves to die with dignity and be buried with dignity, she said.

Laweryson read a poem during the funeral service written by a combat Marine who reflects on where Marines graduate from boot camp.

I walked the old parade ground, but I was not alone, the poem says. I walked around the old parade ground and knew I was home.

___

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.

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