The Graybeards - KWVA - Korean War Veterans Association

HEROS from page 65
A memorial honoring those from Maryland who lost
their lives while serving in he military during Cold War
and terrorist events.
Children Memorial in Dulaney Valley
Memorial Gardens.
simple “thank you” and a joke. “I have a
stone head, so this shouldn’t be any problem
to wear,” he said.
A hero to Families of Fire
Victims
When children die, burial is often provided
by John Armiger, the owner of Dulaney
Valley Memorial Gardens. On a
misty January afternoon, Armiger
watched as a procession of limousines
wended its way through the
green grounds on a misty January
afternoon. Under a tree in the distance
sat three caskets holding the
bodies of three family members,
each from a different generation,
who would be buried side by side
after a fatal fire. “You can see,
there was quite a large turnout,”
said Armiger, who shied away
from introducing himself to the
mourning relatives as the man
who offered them free burials in
his cemetery. “I don’t want to ...
intrude.” The day before, two
young children who died by fire
also were buried free of charge in
Dulaney Valley, a rolling 70-acre
landscape set off by a small lake
with ducks and geese. Neither
family was the first to find a modern-day
Good Samaritan when
their lives were touched by
tragedy.
Since 1978, more than 80
Baltimore-area children - and two
dozen firefighters and police officers
- who lost their lives in fires, murders
or accidents have been buried at the
Timonium cemetery, compliments of
Armiger. Whenever he hears of a child’s
death from fire or other tragedy he offers
grieving families a place to put the child to
rest.
“I can only imagine that’s the hardest
loss to take,” said Armiger, a 52-year-old
bachelor who grew up in Baltimore
County. “It’s not the natural order of
things. It’s terribly difficult to outlive your
children.
In his gray double-breasted suit and
tortoise-shell eyeglasses, he looks like he
might teach history in a prep school,
which is what the Yale-educated Armiger
did at Gilman School before entering the
family business in 1975.
Armiger’s late father, John W. Armiger
Sr., began the practice of free burials for
public-safety officers in an area called the
“Fallen Heroes” memorial grounds. Every
May, a service is held to honor those who
died in the line of duty. In 1978, when he
Plaque on Children’s Memorial states:
became president, Armiger applied the
same concept to children who die tragic
deaths. Deaths by fire are the most common,
though he noted, “We have had kids
over the years who have been shot …It’s a
time when we can help,” he said.
“Generally, the offer is taken by people
who don’t have a great deal of funds.
When you read about a fire because of a
space heater or candles, you know their
circumstances are not the greatest.”
Counting the cost of donated cemetery
spaces in hard dollars and cents would add
up to thousands of dollars. “It was a blessing,
because we didn’t know what we
were going to do,” said Iris Arrington,
who accepted Armiger’s gift on behalf of
her family last month. “Friends had
offered to lend us money to help us handle
the expenses.” “He’s been a wonderful
friend to us,” said Battalion Chief Hector
L. Torres, spokesman for the Baltimore
Fire Department, who frequently has
acted as a liaison between Armiger and
families.
Part of what motivates Armiger.
(John, I and thousands of others could
never find the proper words and space to
describe what a special person you are.
You have touched our hearts with your
generous deeds in a way that is so meaningful
to us that will forever greave over
the loss of a Fallen Hero, a Family
Member or an Innocent Child that never
had a chance of a full life. It has been a
great honor to have known you and to be
able to call you a friend. Korean War
Veterans and I will never forget. —Vince.)
Page 80
The Graybeards