Guyanese woman cremated by mistake by New York funeral home

…family says wanted burial in Guyana

Euvy Rodney – mother of 11, with 55 grandchildren and great-grandchildren had one request before dying this month at 93: to be buried in her native Guyana. Instead, a Queens funeral home cremated her, according to a complaint the family filed with the state Bureau of Funeral Directing, which the Daily News has reviewed.
“We are broken,” daughter Romona Rodney-Park, 53, tells the News. “She’s so much more than this tragedy. She was a loving mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister. She was a woman of unwavering faith who prayed faithfully and devoted her life to caring for others.” The funeral home in question, the J Foster Phillips Funeral Home in Jamaica, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But the family has filed a complaint with the state Bureau of Funeral Directing. “My mother, Euvy Agnes Rodney, was entrusted to the funeral home with the family’s understanding and instructions that she would be buried,” the complaint reads. “The family did not authorise her cremation. “These events have caused the family severe emotional distress and raised serious concerns regarding the funeral home’s identification, authorisation, documentation and communication procedures.”
The state Department of Health, which oversees the bureau, does not discuss specific complaints, though it does on its website provide a list of best practices for funeral homes to avoid such mistakes. “Human remains mix-ups occur infrequently, but are highly emotional for all involved when they occur, often triggering litigation against the hospital and/or funeral director that was engaged to pick up the remains,” the department says. The Rev. Kevin Mccall, an activist and adviser to the Rodney family, said the funeral home should be fully investigated and those responsible for the error should be held accountable. “This funeral home needs to be shut down,” McCall said. Rodney and her husband immigrated here from their native Guyana in 1993 and settled in Queens, living mostly in and around Jamaica. At the time of her death, she was living with Rodney-Park in Lynbrook, the daughter said. Her husband died about 15 years ago.
After she died on July 8, Rodney’s family decided to use a Queens funeral home, since the funeral itself would be at a Queens church. Rodney loved her native Guyana. She had recently installed new windows in her house there and had visited as recently as January. “I did communicate to them that my mom’s final wish is to be taken to Guyana to be buried,” Rodney-Park said. “We have never had any discussion with regard to cremation.” Another sister, Donna Wilburg, 69, said a burial in Guyana would have been fitting. “For her,” Wilburg said, ‘it’s home.”
But almost immediately, Rodney-Park said, the funeral home was evasive, not allowing her to view her mom’s body because she was “undressed,” then later acting cryptically when an official first said she “may have” been cremated before admitting the cremation had happened. “Then they stopped communication with us,” Rodney-Park said. “They just dropped us.” The family’s lawyer, John Elefterakis, said the crematorium, All Souls Crematory, in East Elmhurst, later said the procedure took place on July 14. A crematory official said she could not comment “out of respect” for the Rodney family’s privacy. Elefterakis said it’s not yet clear if the crematorium bears any responsibility for what happened. “It’s been an absolute nightmare for the family,” he said. “And the family is wondering, ‘How can we even be sure these are our mom’s remains?’” “I don’t know if it’s possible to test ashes for DNA.” Experts say such testing is possible, though is not considered reliable. (NY Daily News)