Federal funding is available to help cover funeral expenses for people who died of COVID-19.
Families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 can now apply for thousands of dollars in government assistance for funeral expenses from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and officials say nearly 7,000 Pennsylvanians have applied since the program launched less than a month ago.
“I don’t know that money can ever make up for things like not being able to say goodbye to your loved one, but it’s our society’s only way of doing that,” said Kathleen Ryan, executive director of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association. “In this case, for all the people that struggled to try to pay a funeral bill, this money is certainly helping to alleviate that problem.”
Paul Lesako admits the obvious. âIâm in the death business in a sense,â said the man who owns and operates a Carmichaels funeral home.
He was accustomed to the grim undertakings of his profession â but not the grim ramifications of COVID-19.
âI handled 14 cases through last year,â Lesako said, referring to people who succumbed to the coronavirus. Some had relocated out of state and some had remained local.
âItâs been tough for me mentally. Iâd say its been brutal. You lose people youâve known for decades, who may have been older but were in good health, who succumbed to (the coronavirus).â
FEMA COVID-19 funeral assistance can help shoulder the cost of an unexpected death mcall.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mcall.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jan 12, 2021
PHILADELPHIA (AP) The phone rang over the gurgle of embalming fluid as Geoff Burke wearily eyed the corpse of the woman on the gurney. Another victim of the coronavirus, she’d have to wait. On the phone, a nurse delivered the news: body pickup needed.
Passing the cremation oven, still hot from the morning’s use, Burke changed from his plastic embalming apron to a necktie and collared shirt as Sunday football commentators bantered on the television. As he prepared the hearse outside, his phone rang again. Second body pickup needed at a nursing home outside Lewistown. Coronavirus again.
By Oona Goodin-Smith, Jason Nark, Dylan Purcell and Tim Tai
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA The phone rang over the gurgle of embalming fluid as Geoff Burke wearily eyed the corpse of the woman on the gurney. Another victim of the coronavirus, she’d have to wait. On the phone, a nurse delivered the news: body pickup needed.
Passing the cremation oven, still hot from the morning’s use, Burke changed from his plastic embalming apron to a necktie and collared shirt as Sunday football commentators bantered on the television. As he prepared the hearse outside, his phone rang again. Second body pickup needed at a nursing home outside Lewistown. Coronavirus again.