Brooklyn neighbourhood comes together to bury stranger who died from virus
Published:Friday | May 1, 2020 | 11:57 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — The request, posted on an online neighbourhood forum by a Brooklyn funeral director, was simple but heartfelt.
A 91-year-old woman had died from the coronavirus.
Her family was scattered in other states.
Would anyone like to contribute items for her funeral, like flowers?
This wasn’t a funeral for anyone who lived in the neighbourhood, Brooklyn’s Prospect Leffert Gardens section, or for anyone that neighbours knew. It was for a complete stranger who died at a Manhattan assisted living facility.
Yet within minutes, people began to respond.
One resident, Rebecca Benghiat, embroidered the word “Mom” onto a fabric nameplate that went onto the eco-friendly felt casket.
“I will contribute lilacs -- our lilac bush is bursting with blooms!” another resident wrote.
“I should have some white daffodils opened by then,” wrote another.
Those modest gifts helped give a human touch to a socially distant funeral for Winifred Pardo, who was buried Wednesday at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
Pardo’s family abided by New York’s rules barring gatherings of any size and watched the ceremony via an online chat, with video streamed by one of the funeral director’s assistants.
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