“Today, we are his family.” Those five words spoken by six caring young men have become a viral sensation overnight. Wearing dark blazers and white gloves, the six high school students recited a prayer whiling serving as pallbearers for Nicholas Miller, a homeless man they had never met. Together they stood for a stranger to provide him the dignity in death he did not know in life. They recited the following prayer.
Dear Lord, thank you for opening our hearts and minds to this corporal work of mercy. We are here to bear witness to the life and passing of Nicholas Miller. He died alone with no family to comfort him.
But today, we are his family.
We are here as his sons. We are honored to stand together before him now, to commemorate his life, and to remember him in death, as we commend his soul to his eternal rest.”
The service provided by these fine young men was started by Mike Pojman, assistant headmaster at Roxbury Latin boy’s school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was inspired by the work of the Dignity Memorial homeless Veterans Burial program where high school students near Detroit, Michigan volunteer at funeral services for homeless veterans whose bodies lay unclaimed at the morgue. In the last 16 years, nearly 2000 veterans have been laid to rest with the help of noble young men like the pallbearers carrying Nicholas Miller.