From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and documentaries, and today the program is all one story it's about

two city employees and unlikely friends one a long-time civil servant the other a poet

who then loved him?

In which rooms do you sleep?

Who kissed you good night?

Who wear out your shirt?

Who still looks for you.

Their job is to provide a decent send-off to people who've died alone.

It happens in cities all over the world.

Someone has died and there's no one to claim the body. Here in Los Angeles,

for example, when someone dies alone, the county coroner makes an investigation to find

next of kin. If none is found, the body is cremated and held at the LA County Cemetery near

Boyle Heights. Then, once a year, a modest ceremony is held with representatives of the

coroner's office, USC County Hospital,

and a few members of the press. Prayers are read from several different religions,

and finally the ashes are buried in a common grave.

How much do we, the living, need? buried in a common grave.

How much do we, the living, need to remember those forgotten even by their friends and family?

Today on the program, a documentary from Radio Netherlands about a pair of men who take on as their job

and personal mission, respect for these forgotten souls.

It's unfictional with the lonely funeral. This is the St. Barbara Chapel on the edge of Amsterdam. It's sober, elegant, and almost empty.

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