By Associated Press - Thursday, May 25, 2017

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) - Staff and residents from a Nebraska center for people with developmental disabilities visited a local cemetery this week, as they’ve done for two decades around Memorial Day, to ensure former residents buried there are remembered.

A dozen staff members and six residents from the Beatrice State Developmental Center visited Evergreen Home Cemetery on Wednesday, the Beatrice Daily Sun (https://bit.ly/2rDBfzs ) reported.

They planted wooden crosses in front of headstones in a section known as Block 47, where more than 200 of the center’s former residents have been buried over the past century.

The center was originally established in the late 1800s to serve as a home for children with mental disabilities. Before it opened, people with mental disabilities were sent to mental asylums if their families couldn’t or wouldn’t care for them.

Dr. Robert Schalock said that the facility stopped imprinting patients’ names on their headstones in 1935, and instead used numbers to identify the graves. Schalock said the change was made so families could dissociate themselves from relatives with mental disabilities because of what he called a fear of genetic “guilt by association.”

“Families were told to just forget about them,” said Sonja Horst, an active treatment program manager at the center. “So, you can kind of tell the ones whose families did still keep in touch. This is just to honor the people who lived with us at BSDC and to let people know that they’re still cared about.”

Decorating graves is a way to make sure nobody is forgotten, said Tammy Weichel, also an active treatment program manager. She said it’s also a nice project for current residents.

“Some of the folks that are buried here, they will remember. It’s kind of nice for them to be able to come out,” Weichel said.

The crosses are collected and brought back to the center after Memorial Day for cleaning and repairs, so they’re ready for the following year.

“It’s kind of (group spirit) for all of us to come together,” Horst said. “To come out here and do this to remember.”

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Information from: Beatrice Sun, https://www.beatricedailysun.com

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