A World War II veteran had no one left to bury him. Then 1,500 strangers showed up.

John Bernard Arnold III knew loss before he knew much else. His mom died when he was young, and he grew up in foster care before serving in World War II for the Navy.

His great love in life was making people laugh; he was a passionate magician who never married or had any children. When he died on May 6, there was no one left to bury him.

That is, until Terrance O’Keefe of Hanover-Hanson Veteran Services put out a call to give Arnold a proper send-off. “We planned for the entire state to at least show up,” he said.

The community delivered.

“I got there about an hour early and there were already a hundred people deep,” Erin O’Malley Mandeville said.

She showed up because her husband served for 26 years in the Navy. “Everyone deserves the respect of remembrance. Especially our veterans,” she said.

At Arnold’s service, four veterans simultaneously saluted his casket. The priest also offered the crowd a glimpse into who John Bernard Arnold III was as a man, including his love for classical music, chocolate cake and “Grey’s Anatomy.” 

“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.

Arnold had planned his funeral more than a decade ago, and his instructions were clear: a Catholic Mass, no eulogy. He just wanted people to know that he believed and he served.

When O’Malley Mandeville walked up to Arnold’s casket, she got emotional.

“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,” she said. “And I just quietly said, … ‘I hope wherever you are, you can see this. Because it’s beautiful.'”

At the cemetery, Arnold was sent off under a cloudless sky with bagpipes and a gun salute. The flag from his casket was given to the man who ran the veterans home where Arnold spent his final years.

And one more twist: The story spread, and Arnold’s great-nephew, Joe Durban, recognized his name and flew to Massachusetts to receive Arnold’s flag and visit his family member’s grave.

Arnold may not have wanted a eulogy, but he got 1,500 souls instead.