Under a shade of green cast by tall trees at the Woodland Cemetery, 29 people were remembered at the annual Yolo County Memorial Service.

This year’s service, which recognized those who died as indigents, was special in that it gave Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez an opportunity to note the two new niches just recently installed to replace an older resting site that has been deteriorating for years.

Supervisors Mary Sandy and Sheila Allen, as well as Woodland Police Chief Ryan Kinnan, were also on hand.

It is the function of Lopez’s office to provide burial services for indigent residents.

“Yolo County is committed to ensuring all deceased persons shall be afforded a dignified burial even in those circumstances when their next of kin don’t have the resources to assume the responsibility or there is no next of kin,” he said. “We come here today to honor and pay our respects to family, friends that have served our country and our community who have passed without family.”

Lopez also noted that it was the Board of Supervisors who provided funding to replace the “aging monument” built over 30 years ago.

The new monument — actually two granite-covered columbariums — that have a combined 108 shoe-box sized niches stands adjacent to the old monument.

The new columbariums must still be engraved before the remains are transferred to the new “resting place.”

Providing the invocation for the ceremony was Pastor Daniel Orozco of Eastside Church in Woodland, who called the memorial “special and unique.”

Quoting from the Book of Ecclesiastes, Orozco said the word “Hevel” best describes the writings of a person simply called “Preacher.”

“Hevel,” is a Hebrew term that literally means “vapor,” or “smoke,” to describe how life is temporary, fleeting and enigmatic.

“It describes trying hold of smoke, trying to grab hold of vapor. Life is like that. Life can be frustrating,” Orozco said of Ecclesiastes. “One of the things he thinks about is death. He says the day of death is better and that makes you scratch your head a little bit doesn’t it?”

Orozco said the Preacher in Ecclesiastes say that with new life “you don’t know what life is going to be. But with death you can ‘look back,’ and see what life was like. No more mysteries. …

“But right after that he says it’s better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting,” Orozco continued. “It doesn’t feel that way; but listen to what is said after that: Death is the destiny of everyone. The living should take this to heart, because it’s about who we are now and how we will be remembered” that matters.

After Orozco spoke, there was a three-gun salute by members of American Legion Post 77 as well as four people who remembered some of those being recognized. Each of the speakers appreciated the fact that Yolo County had not forgotten people who had no family or resources.

Those who died over the past year were identified as Hassan Abdullah, a Marine veteran; Peter Altman, Suzanne Brinsfield, Kimberly Delatorres, Duane Devine Jr., Lorralie Falcon, Sandy Fitzgerald, Daniel Folk, Barbara Gallivan, Robert Gallun, Malabhiya (Sean) Gohain, Paula Hattabaugh, William Healtsley, Philip Herfi, Amora Howard, Arlean Jungkeit, James Kennedy, Katherine Lawson, Oliver Maiden, Jerry Martin Sr. and Skip (Ralph) Slaymaker, both Army veterans; David Olegario, Scott Stevenson, Nadezhda Strastkova, Elizabeth Tara, James Trimble, Richard Valek, Howard Zochlinski and a person identified only as John Doe.