Start with the arithmetic, because it explains most sympathy orders placed in this city. Behind a staffed gate off Tice Valley Boulevard, Rossmoor holds roughly 9,800 residents aged 55 and over in 6,676 co-ops, condominiums and houses across 1,800 acres, administered from 1001 Golden Rain Road by the Golden Rain Foundation. A community of that size and that age profile means a large share of what this page handles is not a chapel delivery at all: it is an arrangement to a widow's manor, to a neighbour two entries along, to an adult child staying in the unit for a fortnight to sort out paperwork. That delivery has one hard requirement — the gate. Put the resident's full name, the street and the manor or entry number on the order, add a mobile number, and the driver clears the entrance in a minute. Leave any of it off and the delivery does not happen, because no gatehouse waves a van through on a description. When there is a service, Walnut Creek is unusual among Contra Costa cities in having chapels of its own. Hull's Walnut Creek Chapel at 1139 Saranap Avenue sits in the 94595 pocket on the Lafayette side of town, and Oak Park Hills Chapel at 3111 North Main Street has served families across the county since 1961. Church services run mainly through the city's two Catholic parishes — St. Mary at 2039 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, whose church was consecrated in 1940 and which became a parish on 1 July 1941, making it one of the oldest continuously operating congregations in the area, and its later sister parish St. John Vianney at 1650 Ygnacio Valley Road, established in 1965 — along with the Episcopal, Presbyterian and independent congregations downtown and on the Ygnacio Valley side. What the city does not have is a burial ground. Walnut Creek families bury in Lafayette, where two grounds a few hundred yards apart on one road carry nearly all of it. Queen of Heaven Cemetery and Funeral Center, at 1965 Reliez Valley Road, is the Diocese of Oakland's ground for this part of the county and takes the Catholic committals. Oakmont Memorial Park and Mortuary, at 2099 Reliez Valley Road, keeps a mortuary on site and handles interfaith and non-religious services. From downtown Walnut Creek the sensible approach is Olympic Boulevard to Pleasant Hill Road rather than the freeway interchange, which matters if the committal is at ten in the morning. Beyond those: Alhambra Cemetery, the historic city-owned ground above Martinez; Mountain View Cemetery on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, whose 1863 layout came from Frederick Law Olmsted, for families set on that hillside; and for veterans, Sacramento Valley VA National Cemetery at Dixon or Golden Gate National Cemetery at San Bruno, both of which are scheduled deliveries with a committal shelter and a fixed hour, never same-day walk-ups.