SORRENTO VALLEY -- Adam, a newborn, was found in a Chula Vista dumpster.
Angela, a twin, died at birth. Her parents took their live baby home and left her at the hospital.
Mikayla, aslo a newborn, lay on the Sunrise Highway for two years. When she was found by a jogger, her untouched, decomposing body was wrapped in a blue blanket. She was still wearing a hospital tag on her right thigh, but her name was unreadable.
They died without names, without decent burials, without dignity.
But today they rest peacefully in a quiet corner of El Camino Memorial Park called the Garden of Innocence.
Abandoned and unidentified, they are given names, handmade caskets and funerals attended by dozens of San Diegans.
Elissa Davey, a San Diegan real estate agent, established the Garden of Innocence four years ago after she read a news story about Adam, the baby found dead in a dumpster. At the time, he didn't have a name.
Like most people, she read the story and thought, "How awful." But Davey couldn't forget that baby, and when she made some phone calls and found that his body wa still with the county, she set out to give him a proper burial.
Today, the remains of 40 babies have been laid to rest at the Garden of Innocene, founded by Davey and located in a small corner of El Camino Memorial Park.
The Cemetary donated the land, but Davey had to pay $14,000 in advance for the opening and closing on the graves. She and others with the non-profit Garden of Innocence speak to local groups to raise money.
Each time a baby is found abandoned, or left at the hospital, the county calls Davey, and someone from the Garden of Innocence claims the baby from a local mortuary that donates it's services.
And for each, the process is the same.
We put them on a little receiving blanket and wrap them up," Davey said. "We have another blanket that's been handmade and ready on the castket. We place the baby on that, wrap it around the baby and tuck them in. Then they get their toy, their rose and their ange, and someone comes forward and writes a poem. Wvery single baby has a poem written especially for them. It's never been written before."
Davey doesn't know about the babies' parents, and she doesn't want to.
"We don't get into what was in the heart and mind of the mother," she says. "We start with todlay. Today is new day."
In late March, three babies -- Francesco, Isaiah and Janette -- were laid to rest at the 10 a.m. funeral. Youth from St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Vista carried teh babies' tiny caskets from the hearse to the garden. Knights of Columbus in full uniform escorted theprocession as drizzle turned to rain.
Many of the Knights say the funerals are a moving experience, and that it's an honor to be present at them.
The rain, pouring down on the ceremony felt like tears of joy from God, the angles and saints as they welcomed Francesco, Isaiah and Janette, said Norman Sauceda from St. Francis Parish, in offering and prayer.
Sauceda ministers to youth in his parish, and he hopes that, unlike the parents that abandoned their children, the youth at St. Francis never feel so alone that they are driven to do something so drastic.
Each ceremony includes prayer, song adn a release of whit doves -- on for each baby laid to rest in the garden and three for God. Once Davey and others place teh caskets in their graves, the people pour rose petals over the caskets. Headstones decorated by a local company will soon mark the spaces where the babies are buried.
On May 3, four more babies were laid to rest -- Ellen, Hannah, Jeremiah and Emmanuel.
Some of the babies in the Garden of Innocence have been cremated, due to space constraints. But lst year, Davey expanded the garden with a $32,000 purchase of cemetary land, and each baby will now get a full casket burial.
The garden will now accommodate an additional 500 babies. "Hopefully, none of that will get filled," Davey says.
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