My brother, John, and how the journey began..........

I thought I'd share a little about how my brother came to be buried on Hart Island.  It will be 38 years January 19, 2010, that John's been gone........in body; his spirit has been with me all along, I just didn't know it til now.  It's hard to believe it, really.  He was barely 24 when he died and he'd be 63 years old this year.  The circumstances of his death, which I'm just now discovering, and his burial in Potter's Field, are really quite amazing.  Although John died on January 19th, our family did not find out til mid February 1972, and really quite by accident.  John was an in-patient at the Manhattan Psychiatric Unit since July 1971, diagnosed with schizophrenia while serving in the U.S. Air Force, and I had been in telephone contact with him since late 1971.  The last time I spoke with him  while at the hospital, he sounded good and was looking forward to coming home (to Los Angeles, Ca.).  Months had passed, it was now February 1972, and I realized I had not heard from him for a while.  So, I  called him at the Hospital.  At first, they didn't know who I was talking about when I asked to speak with him, and then after another try, I was told, straight out with no hesitation, and without knowing who I was, "I'm sorry, John Turner is deceased."   This is the god's honest truth..... this is how our family found out John was gone.  It was at this time we also found out John had already been buried...........on February 1, 1972 in Potter's Field.  Efforts were made by our mother to have him exhumed and re-buried in a Veteran's Cemetery in So. California, a fact I didn't find out until March 2009 when I discovered John's military file and other documents - another amazing story by itself.  Flash forward to January 2009 when certain events happened which started me on the journey I'm now on - to have John given the military burial he so richly deserved and still deserves........ nearly 38 years later.  I was initially told by the Dept. of Corrections, the overseer of Hart Island, exhumation after 10 years would not be possible, and I believed what I was told.  And, so, believing I would be unable to secure John remains, I embarked on a journey with the Veterans' Administration to get authorization to bury some of his very personal items - Bible, military cap, smoking pipes and tobacco, and other items (yes, I've kept all his things) instead.  I've even claimed that these personal items are technically  now his "remains"as they contain his fingerprints, his scent, his spirit, his DNA.  I've been fighting with the VA in D.C., and other politicians, both locally and in D.C., ever since.  But, then, when I was unable to get information on the circumstances and cause of John's death, I wrote directly to the doctor who performed my brother's autopsy in 1972.  This doctor came to be the world-renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden . To my shock and surprise, Dr. Baden  personally telephoned me and we've been communicating since November 2009.  Not only did he help me get my brother's autopsy report (which we never got), and I would finally know the surrounding facts and cause of death, but he offered his assistance by seeing "what we can do to get your brother exhumed".  And, so with that one letter, some doors have opened and the possibility of finding John's remains has become quite real.  I followed by writing to a Staten Island Councilman who, although he didn't have to, offered his assistance. Several other elected officials are now all helping to get John home.  If this weren't happening to me, I wouldn't believe it.  And, so, in a nutshell, this is how the journey I'm still on for my brother, John, has lead me to this...........Hart Island and it's preservation.  And, to Dr. Baden, if you ever read this, please know I will always and forever be grateful for your kindness and assistance. As a final note:  there are some who would like me to believe there is "absolutely no way" John's remains will ever be found. All I can say to them is........
"O ye of little faith."  Luke 12:27-28; Matthew 8:25-26.