Mary Helene is a reporter from the Alabama Gulf Coast covering Middle Georgia. She graduated from Mercer University’s Reg Murphy Center for Collaborative Journalism in 2023, where she served as editor-in-chief of The Mercer Cluster. She was a member of the 2023-24 Poynter-Koch Journalism and Media Fellowship. You can find her previous work in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, AL.com, The Macon Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Walking past a booth filled with hand-woven rugs at a festival, you’d never guess that those products led to the recovery of a man who had once thought his life was over.
When a person dies and their family is unable to pay for their descendant’s burial or cremation, the county in which the death occurred is responsible for paying for it from county funds.