Father: Thomas Carr
Mother: Ada Bell Williams
Meredith Carr Nolan married Leo Eitel May 3, 1950 in Humboldt, California
California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1949-1959
**********
May 2022
In the mid-1980s, Meredith "Punkin" Eitel made future arrangements to have her body donated to medical science through the UC Davis Body Donation Program. She informed her close family that once her body went to UC Davis, there would be no remains returned to them.
Following her 1988 death in Eureka, California, her body was transported to UC Davis near Sacramento. Her family felt proud of the choice she had made. But it also left them with no grave and no information about how and if her body had been any help. It left them without full closure for more than 30 years.
Then in the summer of 2021, a family member made a completely unexpected discovery by stumbling across what appeared to be a FindAGrave memorial page someone had created for Meredith. The page was created in 2014 by a FindAGrave angel, Lynda Bentz (#46997906). Lynda found Meredith's name in the microfilmed Lodi Memorial Cemetery records that she accessed at the public library. Lynda then used various additional sources to fill in more information about Meredith for her FAG memorial page; her middle and maiden names, her date and place of birth, where she died, etc. Because of Lynda's efforts, there was enough information on the FAG memorial to trigger an Ancestry.com hint for Meredith. It took seven years for a family member to discover it though, because there had been no reason to search for anything about a final place of rest. Shocking and confusing at first, things eventually began to make some sense. Knowing her date of death and now having learned the interment date, her family surmised that UC Davis was able to use her body for about two years. When they were finished, they respectfully had her remains cremated and put into a community niche in the Lodi Memorial Park and Cemetery. Records reflected who was in the community niche, but no names appeared on the outside of it. UC Davis was under absolutely no obligation to notify her family, as Meredith had agreed to the terms of the Body Donation Program. And so she sat, undiscovered by family, for decades.
In the spring of 2022, her family had her newly discovered cremains disinterred and brought her home to Eureka. Thirty four years after her death, the family now has full closure.
Meredith's family will be forever grateful to Lynda for her kindness in creating a dignified FAG memorial for a person whose unclaimed remains were placed into a community niche.
Mother: Ada Bell Williams
Meredith Carr Nolan married Leo Eitel May 3, 1950 in Humboldt, California
California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1949-1959
**********
May 2022
In the mid-1980s, Meredith "Punkin" Eitel made future arrangements to have her body donated to medical science through the UC Davis Body Donation Program. She informed her close family that once her body went to UC Davis, there would be no remains returned to them.
Following her 1988 death in Eureka, California, her body was transported to UC Davis near Sacramento. Her family felt proud of the choice she had made. But it also left them with no grave and no information about how and if her body had been any help. It left them without full closure for more than 30 years.
Then in the summer of 2021, a family member made a completely unexpected discovery by stumbling across what appeared to be a FindAGrave memorial page someone had created for Meredith. The page was created in 2014 by a FindAGrave angel, Lynda Bentz (#46997906). Lynda found Meredith's name in the microfilmed Lodi Memorial Cemetery records that she accessed at the public library. Lynda then used various additional sources to fill in more information about Meredith for her FAG memorial page; her middle and maiden names, her date and place of birth, where she died, etc. Because of Lynda's efforts, there was enough information on the FAG memorial to trigger an Ancestry.com hint for Meredith. It took seven years for a family member to discover it though, because there had been no reason to search for anything about a final place of rest. Shocking and confusing at first, things eventually began to make some sense. Knowing her date of death and now having learned the interment date, her family surmised that UC Davis was able to use her body for about two years. When they were finished, they respectfully had her remains cremated and put into a community niche in the Lodi Memorial Park and Cemetery. Records reflected who was in the community niche, but no names appeared on the outside of it. UC Davis was under absolutely no obligation to notify her family, as Meredith had agreed to the terms of the Body Donation Program. And so she sat, undiscovered by family, for decades.
In the spring of 2022, her family had her newly discovered cremains disinterred and brought her home to Eureka. Thirty four years after her death, the family now has full closure.
Meredith's family will be forever grateful to Lynda for her kindness in creating a dignified FAG memorial for a person whose unclaimed remains were placed into a community niche.
Father: Thomas Carr
Mother: Ada Bell Williams
Meredith Carr Nolan married Leo Eitel May 3, 1950 in Humboldt, California
California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1949-1959
**********
May 2022
In the mid-1980s, Meredith "Punkin" Eitel made future arrangements to have her body donated to medical science through the UC Davis Body Donation Program. She informed her close family that once her body went to UC Davis, there would be no remains returned to them.
Following her 1988 death in Eureka, California, her body was transported to UC Davis near Sacramento. Her family felt proud of the choice she had made. But it also left them with no grave and no information about how and if her body had been any help. It left them without full closure for more than 30 years.
Then in the summer of 2021, a family member made a completely unexpected discovery by stumbling across what appeared to be a FindAGrave memorial page someone had created for Meredith. The page was created in 2014 by a FindAGrave angel, Lynda Bentz (#46997906). Lynda found Meredith's name in the microfilmed Lodi Memorial Cemetery records that she accessed at the public library. Lynda then used various additional sources to fill in more information about Meredith for her FAG memorial page; her middle and maiden names, her date and place of birth, where she died, etc. Because of Lynda's efforts, there was enough information on the FAG memorial to trigger an Ancestry.com hint for Meredith. It took seven years for a family member to discover it though, because there had been no reason to search for anything about a final place of rest. Shocking and confusing at first, things eventually began to make some sense. Knowing her date of death and now having learned the interment date, her family surmised that UC Davis was able to use her body for about two years. When they were finished, they respectfully had her remains cremated and put into a community niche in the Lodi Memorial Park and Cemetery. Records reflected who was in the community niche, but no names appeared on the outside of it. UC Davis was under absolutely no obligation to notify her family, as Meredith had agreed to the terms of the Body Donation Program. And so she sat, undiscovered by family, for decades.
In the spring of 2022, her family had her newly discovered cremains disinterred and brought her home to Eureka. Thirty four years after her death, the family now has full closure.
Meredith's family will be forever grateful to Lynda for her kindness in creating a dignified FAG memorial for a person whose unclaimed remains were placed into a community niche.
Mother: Ada Bell Williams
Meredith Carr Nolan married Leo Eitel May 3, 1950 in Humboldt, California
California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1949-1959
**********
May 2022
In the mid-1980s, Meredith "Punkin" Eitel made future arrangements to have her body donated to medical science through the UC Davis Body Donation Program. She informed her close family that once her body went to UC Davis, there would be no remains returned to them.
Following her 1988 death in Eureka, California, her body was transported to UC Davis near Sacramento. Her family felt proud of the choice she had made. But it also left them with no grave and no information about how and if her body had been any help. It left them without full closure for more than 30 years.
Then in the summer of 2021, a family member made a completely unexpected discovery by stumbling across what appeared to be a FindAGrave memorial page someone had created for Meredith. The page was created in 2014 by a FindAGrave angel, Lynda Bentz (#46997906). Lynda found Meredith's name in the microfilmed Lodi Memorial Cemetery records that she accessed at the public library. Lynda then used various additional sources to fill in more information about Meredith for her FAG memorial page; her middle and maiden names, her date and place of birth, where she died, etc. Because of Lynda's efforts, there was enough information on the FAG memorial to trigger an Ancestry.com hint for Meredith. It took seven years for a family member to discover it though, because there had been no reason to search for anything about a final place of rest. Shocking and confusing at first, things eventually began to make some sense. Knowing her date of death and now having learned the interment date, her family surmised that UC Davis was able to use her body for about two years. When they were finished, they respectfully had her remains cremated and put into a community niche in the Lodi Memorial Park and Cemetery. Records reflected who was in the community niche, but no names appeared on the outside of it. UC Davis was under absolutely no obligation to notify her family, as Meredith had agreed to the terms of the Body Donation Program. And so she sat, undiscovered by family, for decades.
In the spring of 2022, her family had her newly discovered cremains disinterred and brought her home to Eureka. Thirty four years after her death, the family now has full closure.
Meredith's family will be forever grateful to Lynda for her kindness in creating a dignified FAG memorial for a person whose unclaimed remains were placed into a community niche.
Gravesite Details
Body donated to UC Davis.
Entombment on June 19, 1990, Community Niche #5, Lodi Memorial Park and Cemetery, Lodi, San Joaquin Co., California.
Disinterred on April 15, 2022.
Cremains reunited with family and returned to Eureka, CA on May 12, 2022.
Family Members
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