Gravestone Keeps Memory of Child Alive

Until this week, little Joselyn Amor Hernandez’s grave was on its way to being forgotten beneath a thick carpet of grass.

The 2-year-old’s name lives on in the murder case in which her parents, Rogelio and Gabriela Hernandez, will be tried next month on charges they abused Joselyn and beat her to death.

But time could have erased Joselyn from the memories of all but her closest family and a few law-enforcement officers and lawyers--until a former social worker named Jennifer Green-Stan helped solicit enough donations to buy the girl a gravestone.

This morning, family members, fund-raisers and a Catholic priest will gather in Joselyn’s name at 10 a.m. at the Santa Clara Catholic Cemetery in Oxnard and dedicate to her memory a simple piece of etched granite.

“A Child at Peace,” says the marker bearing Joselyn’s name and dates of birth and death. “She will be remembered by all.”

Green-Stan says that since the trustees of the Joselyn Amor Hernandez Memorial Fund have raised more than enough money to pay for the $484 gravestone, they hope to keep the fund growing to buy headstones for other children who are fatally abused and buried without a marker.

“This is a chance for closure, it’s a chance for healing, it’s a chance for reflection for the whole community,” Green-Stan said. “And it’s an opportunity to make a commitment and say that this is the last child who should die so violently.”

At 6 weeks of age, Joselyn was taken from her young parents and hospitalized with broken legs, cracked ribs and week-old burns on her hands and feet.

She was placed in foster care and eventually went to live with her grandmother. But when the woman died, the court followed social workers’ recommendations and sent her back to her parents.

A few months later, Joselyn died of blunt-force injuries to her stomach.

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And her parents were jailed on charges of child abuse and murder. Their trial is set for Oct. 27.

Rogelio and Gabriela’s families did not have enough money to buy a gravestone, so news of the gift was a welcome surprise, said Juan M. Hernandez, Rogelio’s father and Joselyn’s grandfather.

“We haven’t finished paying for the funeral, and Roy and Gabby didn’t have any money and we don’t have any money,” he said. “We’re just barely making it as it is. We didn’t have enough money for a lawyer for my son or for Gabby. It’s wonderful that people like that can get together and do something like that.”

Green-Stan said she started the fund in Joselyn’s name after reading a newspaper article saying the little girl had been buried in an unmarked grave.

“I guess I’m one of these take-charge type of people--if you see something that needs doing, just do it,” she said. She got two friends to join her as anonymous trustees to set up the trust fund at a local bank--after larger commercial banks refused to help--and began soliciting donations.

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One of the largest gifts came from Earl and Loretta Kennedy, who donated enough to pay for the headstone outright, she said. And the fund has already raised $250 more.

“My wife wrote the check out, because it came really from the heart,” said Earl Kennedy. “What happened to the little girl should never have happened in the first place, and maybe if more people cared, maybe things like this wouldn’t happen.”

That is the goal behind keeping the memorial fund going, Green-Stan said. The trustees hope they can raise enough for headstones for other children in unmarked graves--children such as Rachel Rother, age 64 days, whose mother let her starve to death in 1995, Green-Stan said. The child’s mother, Pamela Rother, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“Children shouldn’t be laid to rest without a recognition that they lived and they died,” she said. “And that someone cared.”

Donations are being accepted by the Joselyn Amor Hernandez Memorial Fund, c/o American Commercial Bank, 6401 E. Telephone Road, Ventura, CA 93003.