Frontline funeral home staff give Queens residents ‘a chance to say goodbye’
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Omar Rodriguez (left) works with Joe Neufeld to move a casket into Gerard Neufeld Funeral Home in Elmhurst. Funeral home staff throughout the borough have worked overtime to ensure people who die from COVID-19 receive a proper memorial. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
By Rachel Vick
There are few breaks in the Queens funeral home industry these days as the borough’s coronavirus death toll continues to rise.
The staff at Sinai Chapels in Fresh Meadows are on the frontlines of the grim business, with some employees working every single day for the past three weeks to preserve victims of the global pandemic and meet the needs of grieving family members.
“We’re trying the best we can,” said Sinai Chapels Director Andrea Resnick.
The frontline funeral home staff have risen to the occasion, despite the persistent threat of COVID-19 in the borough, Resnick said.
“We’re really lucky to have them — they've been giving us so much time and effort,” she continued. “This is so unprecedented. I've never seen people come together like this.”
Nearly 11,500 New Yorkers have died as a confirmed or likely result of the novel coronavirus, according to data published April 16 by the city’s Health Department. Queens residents account for about a third of the city’s more than 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The outbreak has strained the industries associated with death and memorial. Crematoriums, including a site in Middle Village, have been given the greenlight to operate 24 hours a day. Cemeteries have changed their policies and procedures to promote social distancing among mourners, while also handling the surge in bodies.
Funeral homes have also had to adjust their schedules and maintain their workforce to meet the demand, said Peter D’Arienzo, the marketing director for Dignity Memorial Network, a national network which includes funeral homes in Forest Hills, Flushing and Glendale.
“It’s very tough,” D’Arienzo said. “We’re trying every possible vehicle for people to participate in their loved ones funeral. We’ve never put in so many hours and had to have dealt with so many deaths.”
The company’s funeral homes have also had to take extra safety precautions, like ensuring social social distancing among staff, placing some employees on quarantine leave and providing personal protective equipment to workers.
The funeral homes serve an essential function amid so much death, enabling New Yorkers to mourn their loved ones amid social upheaval.
But even that has changed, D’Arienzo said. The state has limited funeral gatherings to ten mourners and discouraged physical contact, prompting some funeral homes to begin streaming funeral and memorial services.
“People need a chance to say goodbye, and if we can afford a simple opportunity for someone to see their loved one, to listen to the religious service to see or listen to the family that’s speaking, it has tremendous value,” D’Arienzo said.
Dignity funeral homes have streamed services for two weeks using Tribucast, a secure video conferencing network. One ceremony had more than 100 people join by video, he said.
The video services were already somewhat popular in neighborhoods where a significant number of older adult “snowbirds” travel to warmer weather in the winter and are unable to travel back to New York for funerals, he added.
D’Arienzo said he expects the funeral home industry to provide a second wave of services to mourners after the current crisis subsides. That’s when New Yorkers can come together in person to honor their friends, family members and other loved ones.
“Have the remote funeral, participate via webcast, but when this is over — when the time is right — have some type of celebration of life,” D’Arienzo said. “Have some type of memorial service where you all come together and honor that loved one.”
