Dying for COVID to Pass - Funeral homes want death of the virus

With the spread of COVID-19 restricting large public gatherings, stakeholders in the funeral industry said their businesses have been slowly dying, as families opt to delay burials until a sense of normality resumes in the country.

Some funeral directors in the Corporate Area have shared with The Gleaner that since March 10 when Jamaica recorded its first COVID-19 case, there has been a significant pile-up of bodies in their storage facilities. This has caused some undertakers, who initially did not charge for storage, to reconsider their guidelines.

Leroy Braithwaite, owner of Braithwaite Funeral Home Ltd, in downtown Kingston, said that in the past two months, his business has lost more than $1.5 million and his recurring monthly bills are driving him further into debt.

“From March until now, we have lost a lot of money. What is happening is because of the virus, nobody is coming out and then sometimes some customers come and we have to give discounts. Not because we are doing a business but we have to be the public’s helper.

“The virus slow up business a lot, but we affi know say we have to continue until it gone but it’s really bad. Some customers keep the funeral at the graveside and fi some, the body have to stay longer because some people want big funeral and you can’t tell them you going to charge more because it’s not their fault and it’s not our fault,” Braithwaite said.

With the loss of revenue, Braithwaite said he has had to lay off some staff to keep the business afloat.

Additional expenses

Rayon Johnson, manager of Benjamins Funeral Home, also in downtown Kingston, said his business has also been gravely impacted by the deadly virus.

According to him, he currently has several bodies in his storage freezer since last year, but owing to the pandemic, families are unable to pay for their packages. He also shared that although the home never initially charged for storage, they now intend to because of the additional expenses they are incurring.

Venturing into the Sunshine City of Portmore which has just opened up after being on lockdown for about two weeks, Kadean Brown-Johnson, office manager for Empathy Funeral Home, said that some of her customers have been opting for cremation, while others have decided to go ahead with just a burial.

“Persons have decided on going cremation, so I have about four or five cremations between last week and this week. They decided to just do the cremation instead of letting their loved ones stay here waiting to see if they can do a big thing. We have offered to keep the remains here until they are ready to do their memorial service so they won’t have to bring it home.

“We are losing because we have to downsize the packages, because at the end of the day it’s only 10 persons allowed, including the pastor. A person’s package price would range between $300,000 and $500,000,” Brown-Johnson said, adding that packages have been scaled down to $200,000.

Further, she disclosed that Empathy, too, has a lot of bodies in storage, as families wait until the fears of COVID-19 pass. However, she said that the funeral home does not charge for storage even though the business’ revenue has been plummeting.

In the meantime, gravediggers at two of Jamaica’s most known burial spots, Dovecot Memorial and Meadowrest Memorial, said that they, too, were feeling the pinch from a decline in funerals.

Dennis Wellington, an all-rounder at Meadowrest, said although he usually works up to six days, since the restriction on public gatherings was announced, his workdays have been reduced to two.

“Me build grave, me do funeral work, me do grass work, me do all type a work pon the land. Since the corona come in, it affect me bad, because a two days a week me start get and me have all a me youth them fi take care of.”

Wellington, who said he is now earning $5,000 per week, complained that when statutory and other deductions of $1,750 are taken out, the balance is woefully inadequate to feed his family.

Michael Walker, who does gravedigging at Dovecot, disclosed that his days have also been reduced owing to the limited number of burials at the site.

According to him, normally on weekends, there would be approximately 40 burials daily, but since the spread of COVID-19, that number has significantly declined to 10 burials daily, or on some days, as few as two.

danae.hyman@gleanerjm.com