`The people there, they’re not corpses,` Marmo said, pulling down his mask, his voice filled with pain as he walked among about 20 bodies in the basement of the Daniel J. Schaefer funeral home in Brooklyn, New York.
Pat Marmo stands among the bodies in the basement of the Daniel J. Schaefer funeral home, Brooklyn, New York on April 2.
Like many funeral homes in New York and around the world, Marmo’s business is in crisis, as he tries to meet surging demand due to Covid-19, a pandemic that has killed more than 1,400 people alone
His funeral home is capable of serving 40-60 cases at a time.
`This is an emergency,` he said.
Funeral homes are in a stuck situation, between overloaded hospitals that want to release patients’ bodies on one side, and crematoriums and cemeteries that are fully booked for at least 1-2 weeks on the other.
Marmo has about 20 bodies being preserved on carts and stacked on shelves in the basement, and a dozen more in the side chapel.
He estimates that more than 60% of these bodies are people who died from nCoV infection.
New York hospitals are having to use refrigerated trucks to store bodies, and Marmo is also trying to find a refrigerated truck rental for his funeral home.
Even when he rented a truck, Marmo didn’t know where to put it.
`I need someone to help me,` he said.
Employees pushed the body into the Daniel J. Schaefer funeral home, Brooklyn, New York on April 2.
Patrick Kearns, a funeral director in Queens, said the industry has never experienced anything like this.
Now, it’s happening.
Like Marmo, Kearns converted a small chapel into a temporary freezer room to store bodies.
The number of deaths increased at a time when large gatherings were banned, leaving the deceased to die alone.
Jackie McQuade, director of Schuyler Hill funeral home, has a difficult time convincing families of these regulations.
`We would go crazy if it was one of our relatives,` she said.
Marmo said he rarely sleeps because of the stress, worrying he will forget some small but important task, like removing a ring from a body’s hand before it is cremated.
Today, he plans to hold a small funeral for a New York subway driver who died while helping passengers evacuate a burning train.
`He deserves a funeral in the Canyon of Heroes,` Marmo said, referring to the stretch of road honoring heroes on Broadway in lower Manhattan.
Hannah