Advertisement
“I like to see our success literally etched in stone, because it will be,” said Karen DePolito, whose husband and Korean War veteran Jerome Birnbaum died in 2005 at the age of 70.
Half of her husband’s ashes were scattered outside their house in Utah, while the other half are interred in a cemetery at Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, Wis., one of the nation’s largest Wiccan churches. Before the grave marker’s arrival, the site was marked only with a pile of stones and some U.S. flags.
Circle Sanctuary, about 25 miles west of Madison, will be home to three grave markers — more than any other place in the country, said high priestess Selena Fox.
Arlington National Cemetery will have two markers. One for World War II veteran Abraham Kooiman of Maryland was dedicated Wednesday. A ceremony for another Wiccan veteran getting a marker was planned for July Fourth, Fox said.
Wiccans sued the government last year, arguing that it was unduly stalling a decision on whether to add the pentacle to the list of acceptable symbols for graves. Under the settlement announced in April, the VA agreed to add the pentacle to the list of 38 others, which includes symbols for Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam.
Winning the fight over the grave markers is vindication for all Wiccans, said DePolito, who plans on saying a Hebrew mourner’s prayer for her husband and placing a crystal that he owned at the grave site.
“I was always certain that we would win this thing,” she said. “The only question in my mind was how soon would it happen.”
Roberta Stewart will also be at the ceremony.
Her husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 when the Nevada Army National Guard helicopter he was in was shot down. Stewart’s ashes were mostly scattered, but some are at the Wiccan cemetery.
For the first time since his death, Roberta Stewart said she didn’t feel like her husband had died in vain.
“I don’t ever want another widow to experience the pain I did for 17 months,” she said.
She said the issue goes beyond her own personal experience.
“To me it shows that our Veterans Administration is hopefully going to think twice before they discriminate the next time,” she said. “They don’t get to pick and choose our soldier’s faith.”
According to the VA, five pentacle grave markers have been delivered since the April 23 settlement with one more request pending. Fox said she knows of 12 requests that are going to be made to the VA for grave markers.
The widow of a third veteran receiving a marker, A. Douglas Wilkey, also planned to be at Monday’s ceremony. Wilkey, who died at age 68 in 2003, served in both Korea and Vietnam.
Ceremony attendees will gather at the church, which is a former dairy barn, and then proceed to the cemetery at the top of a hill overlooking the Wisconsin wilderness. At the grave sites, Fox said she will perform a Wiccan blessing on the new markers.
“Then there will be a time when everyone who is present can go up to the stones and do their own personal honoring of the deceased veteran and blessing,” Fox said.
A U.S. flag that flew over the base in Afghanistan where Stewart served, and that he had mailed to his wife before his death, will be brought in and displayed at the ceremony, Fox said.
At the end, a large circle will be formed to honor all those who have served the country and died, Fox said.
Wicca is a nature-based religion based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons. Variations of the pentacle not accepted by Wiccans have been used in horror movies as a sign of the devil.
The five points of the pentacle represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit.
The VA-issued headstones, markers and plaques can be used in any cemetery, whether it is a national one such as Arlington or a private burial ground like that on Circle Sanctuary’s property.
