John Bernard Arnold III spent much of his life alone. In the end, he was anything but.
Arnold lost his mother as a child, grew up in foster care and later served in the Navy during World War II. He never married and never had children. Friends say what he loved most was making people laugh. He performed magic tricks, adored classical music, loved chocolate cake and apparently never missed an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
When Arnold died on May 6, there was no immediate family to arrange a funeral or stand beside his grave.
So one local veterans official decided that would not be the end of the story.
Terrance O’Keefe of Hanover-Hanson Veteran Services put out a public call asking people to attend Arnold’s funeral so the veteran would not be buried alone.
“We planned for the entire state to at least show up,” O’Keefe said.
What happened next was bigger than anyone expected.
“I got there about an hour early and there were already a hundred people deep,” Erin O’Malley Mandeville said.
Mandeville said she felt compelled to attend because her husband served 26 years in the Navy.
“Everyone deserves the respect of remembrance. Especially our veterans,” she said.
By the time the funeral began, about 1,500 people had gathered to honour a man most of them had never met.
Inside the church, four veterans stood together and saluted Arnold’s casket at the same time. The priest shared small details about Arnold’s life, the kind of details that suddenly make a stranger feel familiar.
“When the priest said that, everyone in the church just kind of laughed a little bit cause he’s a little out of their target demo, but it just made me feel like I knew him,” O’Malley Mandeville said, referring to Arnold’s love of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Arnold had planned his funeral more than 10 years ago. His wishes were simple and specific. He wanted a Catholic Mass. No eulogy. He only wanted people to know he believed and that he served.
But even without a formal tribute, people found ways to speak to him anyway.
“I got teary-eyed when I saw him, and he had his Navy hat right there next to him, which I was told he wore proudly every day,” O’Malley Mandeville said. “And I just quietly said, … ‘I hope wherever you are, you can see this. Because it’s beautiful.’”
At the cemetery, Arnold was buried beneath a clear sky as bagpipes played and a gun salute echoed overhead. The American flag draped over his casket was handed to the man who ran the veterans home where Arnold spent his final years.
Then came one final surprise.
News of Arnold’s funeral spread far beyond Massachusetts. A man named Joe Durban saw the story and recognized Arnold’s name. Durban turned out to be Arnold’s great-nephew. He flew in to receive the folded flag and visit his relative’s grave.
A man who feared being buried alone instead drew a crowd large enough to spill out of the church.
Arnold may not have wanted a eulogy.
But he got 1,500 people standing in for one.
Read more from CBS.
