UNMCK - UNITED NATIONS MEMORIAL CEMETERY IN KOREA

At present, there are three cases of couple tomb at the UNMCK.

They are ;

Mr. Sheppard and Mrs. from Australian,
Mr. Heron and Mrs. from UK and
Mr. Hong, Ok Bong and Mrs. from Korea lying together

The husbands died during the Korean War and buried here first.
The wives lived alone for the rest of their life and left wills to be
buried besides their husband.

The latest case was of Mrs. Sheppard who died at the age of 87 in 2004
and her only daughter Monica brought the ash from home and buried
her mother besides her father in symbolic area at the UNMCK in 2005.
Mr. Sheppard has been lying alone since 1951 for 53 years and
I believe that he might be happy being together by now.
53 years are long time in a sense but may be not that long
in comparision of eternity.

The number of such cases are not large enough mainly because
most soldiers were too young to marry, being mostly at their early
20's. Accordingly I don't expect the number would increase
in the future.

However, I have been encouraged by some commitments
of the wives of the heroes, who visited the UNMCK recently.
One of them, the American lady, whose husband has been lying
at the UNMCK, came here to bring back her husband believing that
she may not have many chances to visit this place due to old age.

Being here she was overwhelmed by the cosy environment
and atmosphere of the UNMCK and promptly she decided not to
bring back her husband. Instead, she asked me the possibility
that she could be buried besides her beloved husband.
Happily, she decided to to so.

Similarly, there was another case as such.
As the Custodian of the UNMCK, I am happy to mention
such beautiful stories these days.

I wish God bless them!