Woman upset over funeral home service

Irene Hart is incensed at the manner in which the Everready Funeral Home prepared her dead sister for burial, by wrapping the body in sheets of plastic.{{more}}

Sharing her plight with SEARCHLIGHT, Hart, a Vincentian who has been living in Trinidad for the past 34 years, said her sister, Magdeline Bruce, died on February 17. She said the family entrusted the body to the Everready Funeral Home.

Hart explained that before her sister died, she (the sister) picked out the clothes that she wanted to be buried in.

Hart, who is also a member of the spiritual baptist religion, said that it has always been a tradition of their family to “dress the dead”.

Hart noted that when she went to the funeral home on February 28 to dress her sister’s body in the clothes that she had requested, she saw that her body had been wrapped in plastic.

“When we ask to dress her, they said it was okay and they were cooperative. When I saw my sister wrapped in this plastic, I asked them how they gonna dress her with this plastic on….”

Hart said she was told by the morticians that the clothes would have been fitted over the plastic.

“Ah say no! We don’t need that. We need the clothes to go on her body because we have certain things to do,” Hart said.

According to her, the workers at the funeral home explained that the body was wrapped in plastic because of leakage coming from the body and that they did not want to dirty the coffin.

“I told them if her clothes mess up is her clothes. Whey they talking about leakage? If an embalmment is done, there should be no leakage…”

However, Hart said they granted her wish to remove the plastic wrap and the clothes were put on her sister in preparation for burial on March 3, in Biabou.

On the day of the funeral, Hart said she discovered that her sister’s dress had been cut and the plastic placed on her again.

“They just throw the skirt over her after they burst it down. Why did they put back on the plastic and we asked them for no plastic? These people need to know, if you pay for a job, you should get what you paid for. They have no right to do what they did,” Hart added.

The woman said she spent $10,000 for the funeral home’s service and said that she was not looking back for her money, but stated that her sister did not deserve that kind of treatment.

“Our tradition is that we dress our dead… I see she (deceased) trying to pull this thing off of she, and I am the one in torment because I am seeing it,” she said.

Owner of the Everready Funeral Home Cedric Mills, when contacted, explained that it is mandatory that plastic undergarments are placed on the body to prevent leakage.

“In this case, the person had bed sores. Once a person has bed sores and you embalm that person, you are going to have leakage,” Mills said.

He added that if the plastic is not used, leakage will occur, resulting in a messy coffin.

Mills further said that Hart had requested the plastic to be taken off her, despite being warned of what will happen if the morticians did so.

After giving in to her request, Mills said the casket was a mess as a result of leakage, due to the absence of the plastic.

“We then had to take the body back out and re-dress the body and put it like it’s supposed to be. She doesn’t know anything about mortician work. That is stupidness!” Mills stated.

Mills also added that it is the first time he has ever heard of such a complaint in all his years in the funeral business.

“Is just crazy people! Is she an embalmer? We do what we know we have to do,” he added. (KW)