Thursday, February 2, 2023

A funeral home copes with the surge during the coronavirus pandemic

Matt Tauro, Nick Turco, and John Lockhead moved the casket of a woman who died of COVID-19 in East Boston to the hearse parked outside of Ruggiero Family Memorial Home.Matt Tauro held roses to give to family members at Holy Cross Cemetery for Annette Nazzaro’s funeral. Nazzaro, who lived to be 100, died of COVID-19.Funeral director Joe Ruggiero Jr. inspected a suit that his daughter, Catie, found hanging in the closet for a client to wear. Because so many people are dying in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, families are not able to get back inside to collect the clothes that they would have dressed their loved ones in for their burial, so Ruggiero has contracted a company to have clothing delivered for burials. In this case, the coat was an old one of his.Chairs were arranged to allow for social distancing to protect against the spread of coronavirus as funeral service assistant Miguel Vargas set up for a visitation.Jim Leo, a Deacon at St. John the Evangelist Church in Winthrop, stood beside the casket of a man who died of coronavirus as he waited for the family to arrive for a socially distanced graveside service.A mourner held a cellphone out to record as she attended Santos A. Rivas’s funeral from inside her car. Due to strict social distancing guidelines, only 10 people are allowed outside of their cars for graveside services at Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett.Vanessa Rivas prayed alongside her mother, Rosa A. Martinez Rivas, and brother Danny A. Rivas during the funeral service for her father, Santos A. Rivas, who died after a battle with COVID-19.At Ruggiero Family Memorial Home in East Boston, apprentice funeral director Catie Ruggiero looked through a bag of clothing belonging to a man who died of coronavirus. Catie’s father, Joe, had tried to return the bag to the man’s relatives at his funeral, but they asked if he would look through it for fear that it might be contaminated with coronavirus.Family members of Annette Nazzaro maintain a social distance during her wake at the Ruggiero Family Memorial Home in East Boston. Nazzaro lived to be 100 before succumbing to coronavirus.Family members embraced as friends and family paid their respects from afar, lining the street in their cars surrounding the gravesite of Santos A. Rivas, who passed away from coronavirus.Funeral director Joe Ruggiero Jr., founder of his family’s business, Ruggiero Family Memorial Home in East Boston, looked up at the white board full of funerals for the week as he tried to figure out the next day’s staffing beside his daughter, Catie.After tending to three funerals earlier in the day, funeral director Joe Ruggiero III got a call shortly after 8pm to retrieve the body of a man who had died at home. Ruggiero and assistant funeral director Nick Verrocchi worked together to move the man’s body out of his home in East Boston.A mourner was reflected in the rearview mirror of his car as he attended Santos A. Rivas’s funeral.Funeral workers moved a casket out for a funeral as another was brought in to set up for a wake inside Ruggiero Family Memorial Home in East Boston.Apprentice funeral director Catie Ruggiero sprayed each chair with Lysol following a wake.Mourners broke down during a wake at Ruggiero Family Memorial Home for Santos A. Rivas.Matt Tauro, Michaelangelo Gerardi, John Lockhead, and Nick Turco waited for the family to arrive at a graveside funeral held for a man who died of COVID-19.Catie Ruggiero (left) and Jacqueline Brangiforte, both apprentice funeral directors, transported a body from Melrose Wakefield Hospital.A mourner held out two phones to FaceTime Santos A. Rivas’s funeral for people who could not be there in person.Chairs were pushed against the wall to make room for caskets in a makeshift storage area that Ruggiero Family Memorial Home usually uses as a tribute room.Fr. Eric Bennett prayed over the casket of a man who died of COVID-19. Because the man’s family live in Italy, where they were in lockdown, they were unable to travel here for the funeral. The only other person in attendance was funeral director Joe Ruggiero III. Under normal circumstances the man’s body would have been shipped back to Italy, but because of restrictions put into place due to coronavirus that wasn’t possible.Funeral director Joe Ruggiero moved a body into a makeshift storage area.Matt Tauro carried flowers that adorned the casket to the limo so that they could be brought to the cemetery for a graveside service being held for a woman who died of coronavirus.A message scrawled on the back windshield of a car was seen during Santos A. Rivas’s funeral. The mourner who wrote it wasn’t able to get out of the car to stand beside Rivas’s grave.A mourner broke down during a wake for Santos A. Rivas at the funeral home.During a graveside service at Ridgelawn Cemetery in Watertown, flowers were placed on the casket of a woman who died of coronavirus.[NDN/ccn/comedia Links]
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