yeah like. in Gwen's case she was eighteen when she died, and apparently the legal age is seventeen in New York at least? and the age of majority is eighteen, so yeah she's managed to scrape by just barely, but there are people who didn't get as lucky. like, in the best-case scenario their parents were either buried in the cemetery as well or can come claim them (see: little girl in the church Matt overhears), in the worst-case scenario--say, for kids who died more than a century ago or so--everyone they love is dead. there might be descendants willing to take them in, but it's also just as likely that there won't be and into the foster care system or orphanage they go. and like, imagine how complicated things are going to get now. man, those poor kids.

wow, that is truly disturbing and definitely something Ben would be interested in finding out. I figure the spell worked on them too, but not many were able to crawl out of their coffins by themselves--others did manage to get help, somehow (and I keep thinking this might also apply to infants who died, like you could hear them crying out and it's a race to get to them before they suffocate oh my god working out the logistics of this is disturbing), but there were a few who ended up dying again in their coffins.