Tissue boxes line the aisles of Mershon Auditorium as families and friends of this year’s body donors gather to celebrate their loved ones. Credit: Emma Wozniak | Arts & Life Assistant Editor
Filled with families from all walks of life, the Mershon Auditorium hosted hundreds Sunday afternoon who all have one thing in common: the sacrifice they and their loved ones made for science.
Each year at the end of August, the College of Medicine, College of Dentistry and Division of Anatomy bring together the families of those who have donated their bodies to science through Ohio State’s body donation program, according to the university website. Melissa Quinn, the faculty adviser for the Anatomy Memorial Service Committee, said this year’s memorial honored the 272 donors who gifted themselves to the program in the past year.
“It’s a chance for all the family and friends of those donors, as well as all the students, to pay their respects,” Quinn said. “During the service is when all the names are read. So the students — when they start working with the donor — they don’t know their name or anything, but when we read the names, they get a chance to hear all the names of who they’ve worked with that past year.”
The impact of such a sacrifice on Ohio State is remarkable, Quinn said, as body donors are contributing to each and every health science program on campus, including nursing, medical, dental, anatomy, physical therapy and other health fields that all come together to commemorate this year’s donors.
“Their gift is they’re teaching the next generation,” Quinn said. “[The service] really is our way for our students and our faculty to be able to put into words what that gift means to them.”
Pilard Hanna, a third-year anatomy Ph.D. candidate and Anatomy Outreach Team’s graduate student director, said the service is special to her because she became acquainted with the donors on an anatomical level over the course of the year, and now she gets to know them more personally through their loved ones.
“I honestly feel kind of connected to them, because you work with the donors throughout the year,” Hanna said. “[The families] are like my extended family, which is really the beauty of this memorial service. You feel we’re all connected in a circle, in one big family that came together for the same goals and reasons to honor our donors, but also to see how this generous gift affected hundreds of people.”
This year’s theme was “Tree of Remembrance,” a message enhanced by the illuminated artificial trees adorning the auditorium stage. Quinn said the students who worked with this year’s donors secured a tree near the College of Dentistry that will have a plaque erected nearby, serving as a gathering place for donor families and friends to celebrate their loved ones.
“If we use our collective imagination, I believe we can envision a tree that represents learning, progress, caring, hope and healing,” Carroll Ann Trotman, dean of the College of Dentistry, said during her speech at the memorial. “Your friends, family members and loved ones are the roots that make it possible for that tree to flourish. They gave themselves for the benefit of others and there’s no greater or more laudable gift than that.”
After a collection of speeches and musical performances, students took the stage to read the names of all 272 donors from the past year, some of which were accompanied with a photograph and quote provided by the donor’s families and displayed on a projector screen.
One of these donors was Eileen Joseph, though her family knew her as “Baba.”
Jacki Grothous, Joseph’s daughter, said her mother had several health questions left unanswered when she passed away, and Grothus wanted to donate her body in the hopes of helping doctors find those answers for someone else in the future.
Alongside Joseph’s name during the service were the lyrics to “Mairzy Doats,” a song Toma Bomser, Joseph’s granddaughter, said Baba had always sung.
“When I saw that on the screen, I just lost it,” Bomser said.
Grothous said seeing everyone gathered to honor the donors made her realize the immense impact of her mother’s decision.
“I’m so proud of her,” Grothous said. For those who were unable to attend, the memorial service can be viewed via livestream here. The memorial tree dedicated to this year’s donors is located between the Ohio State Brain and Spine Hospital and Postle Hall.
