Empty chairs at funeral home in ‘epicenter’
NEW YORK — The caskets are often closed these days and the chairs for mourners largely empty at the Gerard Neufeld funeral home.
But the work doesn’t stop, not at the funeral home near a Queens hospital hit hard by patients suffering, and some dying, from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus that is sweeping the globe.
“We’re right there in the middle of the epicenter,” said Joseph Neufeld Jr., who along with his father, is the funeral director at Gerald Neufeld, which has been operating since 1940.
In the past week, the home has held services for close to a dozen people who have died from the virus. It is expecting to do more.
COVID-19 has been devastating to New York state, with more than 500 deaths and over 50,000 confirmed cases, most of them in New York City. In Queens,
Elmhurst Hospital, near the funeral home, has borne the brunt of the virus’s damage in New York and saw 13 deaths in one 24-hour period this week.
While in most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough, it can cause severe illness and lead to death for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems.
And for those who lose their loved ones, funerals in the age of self-quarantine and social distancing are a far cry from the rituals of collective mourning that took place a few weeks ago.
Fears of exposure linger even after death, with family members opting for closed caskets.
“Unfortunately, the families don’t necessarily get the closure that they want,” Neufeld said. “Some have looked for services here, but we have to limit it to, say, an hour or two, really no more than 10 or 12 people. We try to only have one service on at a time so that you don’t spread it even more.”