This morning, Nativity Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Greek Orthodox church in Cohasset informally known as Panagia church, held a memorial prayer service for Ana Ljubicic Walshe. If you live in eastern Massachusetts, you’ll remember that Ana Walshe is the Cohasset woman who disappeared on January 1, 2023. Last month, her husband, Brian Walshe, was found guilty of first degree murder; he also pleaded guilty to misleading the police and improperly disposing of a body. When sentencing Brian Walshe to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the judge called his acts “barbaric and incomprehensible.” With the sentencing, a truly grisly murder case had finally come to an end.
Yet even with Brian Walshe’s sentencing, Ana Ljubcic Walshe’s family still didn’t have complete closure. There is an oddity in Massachusetts state law that a death certificate cannot be issued when there is no body. Brian Walshe pleaded guilty to disposing of her body in various dumpsters around eastern Massachusetts, and none of her remains was ever found. That means no death certificate can be issued.
Ana’s mother is Serbian Orthodox. In that faith, a full funeral can’t take place without a death certificate (that is, without a body). Various Massachusetts officials are now trying to get the law changed so that in certain circumstances, a death certificate can be issued when there is no body. In the mean time, the Serbian Orthodox bishop based in Cambridge arranged to come down to the Greek Orthodox church in Cohasset to celebrate a memorial prayer service for Ana Walshe. A memorial service, in the Orthodox tradition, doesn’t require a body. The memorial service was livestreamed so that Ana’s mother in Belgrade, and her sister in Canada, could participate from a distance.
Panagia church opened the service to the entire Cohasset community; they know how this murder has impacted everyone in the community. They also issued a special invitation to the other congregations in Cohasset, so of course I had to attend. I would have gone anyway, because domestic violence prevention is one of the issues that I care most about. I’m also grateful that the Cohasset community has not tried to forget, or to cover up, this horrendous incident of domestic violence — something that happens all too frequently.
The interior of the Greek Orthodox church is beautiful, filled with icons. Even though I’m part of an iconoclastic religious tradition, personally I love icons, and I found it peaceful and calming to look at them before the service began. The service was led by the local Greek Orthodox bishop (who used to be the pastor of Panagia church, the Serbian Orthodox bishop, the current pastor of Panagia, and his immediate predecessor. It was a beautiful service, filled with (as they put it) the hope of eternal life.
We can only Ana’s family got at least some measure of comfort from this service.
