Witness to this Miracle of God’s Love.

by Fr. Michel Mulloy
Presider of Baby Brian’s Reinterment

I received a call from Ace Crawford, a parishioner whom I had come to know through her family’s involvement in the Cathedral parish following the death of her nephew. During this call, Ace inquired whether I would be available to preside over the reinterment service for her brother’s son, Brian Gallagher, at Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota. I agreed.

Shawn was a career military servant. He and his wife, Mary Pat, had traveled extensively during his career and had finally selected the Black Hills for their retirement home. Their first child, Brian, had died one hour after his birth while they were stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Unsure where to bury their little boy, and facing the uncertainty of future moves, they decided to bury him in Highmore, South Dakota, where Shawn had grown up and where some of his family still lived. Now that they were settled in their retirement years, they wanted to move Brian’s grave to the National Cemetery in Sturgis, South Dakota.

On the day selected for the reburial of Brian, I arrived at the cemetery, parked by the visitor’s center, and got out to greet the “Gallagher girls.” There I met Shawn and Mary Pat for the first time. I asked them to share their story, although I already knew the basics.

Mary Pat explained Brian’s untimely death 37 years before. After describing the circumstances that brought us together, she asked if I wanted to see a picture of Brian. I assumed that Shawn and Mary Pat had taken photos of their son in his casket before the original burial — though it’s not something I personally find helpful, for some it is part of the grieving process.

Mary Pat scrolled through her phone and presented a photo of a beautiful, full, round-faced baby with dark hair, clearly lying in a casket. She said, “We took this picture yesterday.”

I hope my shock did not show. My first thought was, Oh, she is crazy. That is embarrassing to admit, but I truly suspected in that moment that Mary Pat had lost touch with reality. Brian was a tiny baby with soft bones. He had been laid in the casket and buried for 37 years. His body, by all natural expectation, would have decayed. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to keep my thoughts to myself and allow Mary Pat to explain further.

She told me that she and Shawn had asked the undertaker, if it were possible, to allow them to see their son after he was exhumed. I remember Thomas, the son of Shawn and Mary Pat, telling me that the funeral director had assured him there would be little or nothing left. But instead, Brian was found in perfect condition — exactly as he had been on the day he was buried 37 years earlier.

Mary Pat explained that they had taken him out of the casket, and she held him. She unwrapped his blanket and held his hand between her fingers. Afterward, Brian was wrapped in a new blanket and placed in a new casket. Then Mary Pat took the picture she had shown me.

I was stunned. “You have an incorruptible child on your hands,” I managed to say. “Yes, I know,” Mary Pat replied.

I assured her, as I never have before, that her son was in heaven. His innocence, coupled with baptism and this extraordinary sign of holiness, confirmed what most people hope for in the face of the death of a loved one.

We drove the short distance to the building where services are held. Brian’s little white casket was placed on the bier. The Gallagher family and friends sat in the chairs. Shawn had tears in his eyes; Mary Pat was calm and peaceful. Not knowing for sure how mothers and fathers process the death of a child, still I thought to myself: You have wondered for 37 years where your little Brian is. Now you know.

I met with Shawn and Mary Pat some years later, and they showed me more pictures from the day they saw their son for the first time in 37 years. Everything Mary Pat had told me was confirmed. I saw a picture of her holding Brian, unwrapped. The incision across the top of his head from the autopsy was visible. Shawn and Mary Pat told me that Brian had been baptized at their request, although they were not present at the time. Nonetheless, the baptism of desire was certainly present in their hearts on the day of his birth and death.

This experience remains with me. I think about it often. I have seen incorrupt bodies in famous churches in Rome and other towns in Italy. I have always believed that incorruption is a sign of holiness for adults who are exhumed and found in such a condition. Brian’s incorruption, wedded to his innocence and baptism, is a strong confirmation of God’s grace working in our lives.

I am deeply grateful that Ace called me and that I was able to be a witness to this miracle of God’s love.