Bereaved aggrieved
Home botched 4 wakes in 1 day: kin
At this bungling Manhattan mortuary, it’s the staff that’s braindead, angry customers claim.
The R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home botched four services in just a few hours on Sunday — causing extra pain for grieving families, including one that was presented a casket with the wrong person inside after some three hours of waiting.
“It was another woman in my mother’s dress,” said Miguel Paulino Castro, 57. “I was in disbelief.”
The former corrections officer from The Bronx said the other woman’s remains — which were clad in an outfit Castro’s family picked out for his late 79-year-old mom, Maria — appeared not to have been embalmed and in the early stages of decomposition.
The shocking blunder was revealed after the remains were delivered three hours late from an- other funeral home in The Bronx. Castro said he tracked down his mother’s body on his own at another funeral home in the borough.
The loved ones of Jeremy Rodriguez, 24, were also forced to suffer on their tragic day after the funeral home got his body to the facility hours late and then left another person’s casket in the room where they were to have their services.
His family, which paid $11,000 for the wake, had to wheel in their loved one’s casket themselves because the funeral home was shortstaffed, relatives told WABC-TV.
“This was one of the most horrendous moments I ever experienced in my life,” Elizabeth Felix, Rodriguez’s cousin, raged.
The body of Rafael Garcia also arrived three hours late and wearing the wrong clothes, infuriating his family.
“If you loved your loved one, do not bring them here. This is inhumane,” a relative of Garcia’s, Awilda Torres, told WABC.
The body of another, unidentified woman also arrived hours late on Sunday — and the flowers and decorations, such as rosary beads and crosses, that her family ordered had never been set up, according to the station.
“I just happened to turn around and saw the flowers,” said Nancy Rivera, who paid $5,000 for the service. “[I] took them and put them in the room.”
The lone worker at the funeral home was so stressed out by the series of flubs that she passed out, according to the station.
“The lady who is on site collapsed,” Felix said. “Families called an ambulance for her. [She] could not take us asking so many questions and complaining. Horrendous.”
Workers at R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home declined to comment on Monday. The owner, Michael Ortiz, didn’t return calls seeking comment.
It was another woman in my mother’s dress. I was in disbelief. — Miguel Paulino Castro