Foundation helps babies to 'rest in His arms'

In 16 months, Susan Walker has buried six babies. None of them were hers, at least not in the sense that she had given birth to them. Walker has started an organization to provide funeral services for abandoned babies who were found dead, because she believes God wants her to make sure they go to their final resting places with an escort of love. Walker, a parishioner at St. Edna in Arlington Heights, and Deacon Jim Pauwels, a member of the Rest in His Arms board, took time to talk about their work before the funeral of Baby Lexi Elizabeth Dec. 12 at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica on the West Side. The infant was found Sept. 13 wrapped in plastic on top of a garbage can in an alley in the 2800 block of Lexington Street.

The Catholic New World: How did you start organizing funerals for babies who were found dead?
Susan Walker: In August 2005, I saw a newspaper article about a baby boy whose body had been found in a landfill in Grayslake. It really hit me. Being a mother myself, I just can't imagine that somebody can give up their child. I mourned for that baby and I cried for that baby and I asked what I was supposed to do. I finally got brave enough to call the phone number. I was talking to the Lake County Sheriff, and they investigated me to make sure I wasn't the baby's mom. Once they were sure I wasn't, they put me in touch with the coroner's office, and they allowed me to help plan the funeral.

TCNW: How did the baby get his name?
SW: They were going to allow this baby to be buried as Baby Boy Doe, and I just didn't think that was right. I checked with the state of Illinois, and we needed to file a foundling death certificate, and that asked for a name, so I was able to name him Michael Gerard. Michael, because it means "who is like God" and Gerard because he is the patron saint of mothers, and of mothers in labor. ... I liked the idea of having him be named after the greatest archangel. This tiny little baby that was thrown away is now the namesake of the greatest archangel.

TCNW: How did you end up with more babies?
SW: About three weeks later I got another phone call from the Lake County coroner that there were two more babies, and I got that feeling again of needing to do something. It was responding to that voice, saying "OK Lord, what is it you want me to do?" I could almost hear it like a conversation, where God was saying, "Where are these children resting? They're resting in my arms." Just to know that was what we were supposed to do-we were supposed to find a way to allow these children to rest in God's arms, to bring them home to him and to show the world that their lives had meaning, as brief as they were, that these children are precious and that they're valuable, and that they'll be missed.

TCNW: Were you surprised the coroner's office gave you the responsibility of planning the funeral?
SW: Yes, but I also thought it was wonderful that they would allow us to give him his dignity back, that he wasn't just forgotten about a second time.

TCNW: Are all the burials the same?
SW: There has been some variety to them. Baby Michael's was not a Catholic funeral. There was a Presbyterian minister present. It was very much a Christian funeral, but it was not a Catholic burial. Babies David and Rosa were buried together, and theirs also was a Christian ceremony but not Catholic. With Baby Kinzie, whom we buried in October, and now with Baby Lexi, they have both had the Catholic funeral Mass, which is very special to us and it's something we believe in very strongly. If these children were ours, they would have been baptized, so we think it's the right thing to do.

TCNW: How frequently is there a need?
SW: Baby Lexi was the seventh child that we've learned about since August of '05. It's been heartbreaking that there are so many, especially since we have a safe haven law in Illinois. The laws were passed in 2001 that say a mother in crisis can bring her newborn up to seven days old to any staffed fire station, police station, hospital or medical emergency center and there are no questions asked. So there is a very, very safe alternative. We work arm-in-arm with the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation. They are the organization that got the Safe Haven law passed and have continued to get the law improved and have really done quite a bit to publicize the law and educate mothers about the alternatives. We have not found that there is any demographic where this is happening. It's not young teenage women. It isn't a crime that happens only to certain ethnic groups. It's across all boundaries, all age ranges. The mothers have been from 13 or 14 years old to their mid to upper 30s. They've been white, black, Hispanic, you name it. It's really a matter of educating everyone to let them know there are safe alternatives and safe places where they can take their children to give them a gift of life.

TCNW: How do you maintain your faith in the face of the heartbreak?
SW: What really helped is being part of a community, being part of a faith community at St. Edna's, knowing that I have really wonderful friends who feel the same way I do about these children. Some of them are here tonight-people that I can call when there is another child and they will come over and pray with me, and the hugs and the support. It's not something that I do alone-it is very much a shared ministry, and it's been a ministry that my entire parish has adopted. There is support coming in from so many people.
Deacon Jim Pauwels: It's apparent that God has blessed this ministry. There are so many graces, so many gifts from so many people, it's really miraculous.
SW: It is. Sometimes Jim and I have talked about how we feel like we're puppets and that God is really directing us and telling us what to do. It's kind of a neat feeling, that he's put everything in place and everything happens so easily. When we needed a donation for our Web site, we got a check for the exact amount the next day. When we needed a funeral home to help us, we got a contact the very next day.

TCNW: Do you work with a specific funeral home?
SW: There's been one that's really taken the lead, and that's Strang Funeral Home in Grayslake. But for this burial, they had a really busy week, and they asked if we would consider using someone else. As that conversation was happening, I got a phone call from someone in our church saying that Glueckert's was interested in helping. So Glueckert's is taking care of Baby Lexi. It was just one of those things again.
DJP: Everyone works with us. It's one of our feelings that we want, whenever we can, to celebrate the funeral in the community where the baby was found. That way the people that found the baby might be able to come; if there was a police investigation, the police officers might be able to come. The community that's upset about this happening, they can come and find healing. We didn't know anybody at the basilica here, but we just picked up the phone and called them, and they've been so gracious and welcoming. The Chicago police have been the same way, the Cook County Medical Examiner, Catholic Cemeteries of Chicago-they have all been so generous.
SW: They donated 48 plots that are all contiguous at All Saints (Cemetery in Des Plaines) so that we can keep all our babies together. I had been trying to make that happen for a year, and I was just so overwhelmed when they told me that at Baby Kinzie's funeral. There's a lot of peace in that.

TCNW: Do you feel like they're your babies?
SW: I do. I do.
DJP: They are members of the human community, and they are just as much ours as anybody we meet.

TCNW: How do you find out about the babies?
SW: It used to be we would hear things on the news, but now they call us. Now anytime a child under the age of 21 goes unclaimed for more than 90 days, the medical examiner or coroner calls us. Unfortunately, we know there is a child who is a little boy described as being between 3 and 5 years old who was found in Naperville last year. He has yet to be buried. The local police are not ready to release him yet.

TCNW: What's been hard about this?
DJP: For me, it's hard spiritually just to contemplate circumstances of these little ones. What they need is care and love and what they get is the other end of the earth. It's hard to confront what in most cases I think is just evil. It's sinful. It's hard to use those words, but you're faced with a dead little baby who died of neglect or was killed. You can't reach any other conclusion.
SW: It's hard for me each time I see one of the tiny caskets at church. To see these little caskets that are only 18 inches long and to think that baby could have lived, and there are people who want so desperately to have a child, it seems unfair that someone who could have the child chose to have such a disrespect for life. It's hard knowing that the phone's going to ring again, that this isn't the end. As much as we do to educate about safe haven laws, it's going to happen again. For more information, visit www.restinhisarms.org.