Nine New Yorkers who froze to death on city streets last winter will finally be laid to rest Monday, not in the anonymous trenches of Hart Island, but inside one of Manhattan’s grandest churches. Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue will hold a public Funeral Mass at 5:30 p.m. for the nine, whose cremated remains will then be interred in the church’s Resurrection Chapel.
The service falls on All Souls’ Day, when the church remembers and honors those who have died, according to Episcopal News Service. The nine were among 18 people experiencing homelessness who died from exposure to freezing temperatures on city streets last winter, the outlet reports. All nine remained unclaimed at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and without intervention they would have been buried on Hart Island, New York City’s public burial ground.
That intervention came from Rhonda Roland Shearer of CutRedTape4Heroes.org, who arranged to claim the remains of all nine individuals so they could receive a proper funeral instead. Housing Works also worked with New York City’s Human Resources Administration to register itself as an “Organizational Friend,” a designation that lets the organization claim other deceased people who might otherwise go unclaimed, per the same account. Funeral director Patrick J. Marmo, owner of International Funeral & Cremation Services of New York, donated the funeral arrangements, Episcopal News Service reports.
A Deadly Winter on the Streets
The nine men and women died during a brutal stretch of cold that gripped the five boroughs, with temperatures falling as low as 3 degrees, according to the New York Post. Among them was a man originally from Russia who had lived in Manhattan for ten years; he died of hypothermia on Feb. 10 after being found in a doorway vestibool on East 7th Street in the East Village, Episcopal News Service reports…