A grandfather’s homegoing

For The Madera Tribune

From left are Ignacio Becerra, Superintendent of Arbor Vitae Cemetery, Madera Cemetery District, Pastor Lemus’ grandson Andres Zavala, 45, of Gilroy, Calif., and Jose Luis Rodriguez Jr., Location Manager of Funeraria Del Angel Fresno.

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After 78 years, Pastor Lemus begins his final journey home to Mexico

Standing shoulder-high inside an uncovered grave at Madera’s Arbor Vitae Cemetery, Jose Luis Rodriguez Jr., of Funeraria Del Angel in Fresno, bent over and carefully scooped wet dirt away from the remains of Pastor Lemus, a Mexican farmworker who was killed in a hit-and-run-accident, and buried in the county section of the cemetery in 1947.

“I wanted to make sure this was done in the most dignified manner, so I prepared myself mentally first,” Rodriguez said while emptying small shovelfuls of soil into a blue bucket at the side of the grave. 

Last Wednesday, Rodriguez, along with James Davis, a licensed embalmer, and J’anice Porter, a mortuary science intern, also with the funeral home, carefully excavated Lemus’ grave, removing his remains that had been laid at rest there for 78 years.