A grieving mother says she’ll be able to get her daughter out of a hospital freezer storage unit and buried with dignity, after an outpouring of community support has helped the family pay for the cost of a funeral.
Janice Strickland says she’s grateful for the help she’s received through an online fundraiser.
“I was totally amazed to see the amount of people that had come together to help my family, my daughter, my husband, my boys. I want to thank each and every one of them for help. Thank you so much for helping us get my daughter to put her to a proper burial,” Strickland told CBC News on Wednesday.
Strickland’s 31-year-old daughter, Sarah, died July 11 and was taken to the Health Sciences Centre for an autopsy. Strickland said her family couldn’t afford the $4,000 cost she was quoted for a cremation, let alone the $13,000 for her preferred option of a burial.
Her son set up an online fundraiser with the goal of raising the money for the more affordable cremation, and after CBC News shared her story, they received more than $10,000 in donations and were able to close the fundraiser.
In the meantime, Sarah’s body is still one of dozens being stored in the Health Sciences Centre’s freezer units. Strickland said her daughter will be retrieved Thursday by the funeral home and brought to a cemetery on Newfoundland’s southern shore, where a family friend donated a plot, for a funeral on Friday.
She said the choice of location is special to the family.
“We’ve got it paid, thank God. We’ve got it paid. She’s going to be buried up on the southern shore, where she grew up,” Strickland said.
In March, CBC News reported 28 unclaimed bodies were being stored in freezer units outside the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s due to a lack of space in the morgue, which doubles as the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
When Sarah is buried, Strickland hopes she’ll be able to finally be able to properly grieve her daughter’s death.
“Once I am able to lay her to rest and know that she’s there, I’ll be able to take a sigh, step back, look at what happened and what’s gone wrong. And I’ll be able to think about it and grieve on my own,” said Strickland.
She said she’d like to sit somewhere quiet and think about the brief time she had with Sarah.
“I thank God for the 31 years that I had with my daughter. I really do. It’s only 31 years, but it’s better than nothing.”
Her daughter’s sudden death at 31 and the ordeal of not knowing if she’d be able to bury her have left a mark on Strickland, she said.
“I am going to start putting a little fund away now. I still have three more children — three more boys — and my husband. And I think it’s time that I should start putting away a few dollars to help save up for something like that, if it shall ever happen again.”
Newfoundland and Labrador families on income support can apply for provincial government assistance for up to $2,338 to help with cremation or burial costs, but that figure hasn’t changed in nearly two decades.
However, Strickland said she was told that since her family started a fundraiser, the government wouldn’t offer any help
She said she wants to see the government do more to help families like hers. Their plan to store bodies in an expanded freezer won’t solve the problem, she said.
“All I’m asking you is to get on the ball and start taking care of these bodies. Put them to rest. Let them be at peace. Because right now they’re not, and they need to be at peace. And I wish that the government would take control of it,” said Strickland.
$2,300 still covers ‘full cost’ of funeral, says minister
Paul Pike, minister of children, seniors and social development, denied Strickland’s statement that the government wouldn’t offer them help.
“We certainly are working with the family is all I can say at this point,” said Wednesday, adding he couldn’t comment on specific cases for privacy reasons.
In a later email to CBC News, department spokesperson Gayle St. Croix said fundraising by family or friends doesn’t typically impact the government’s coverage of a funeral unless the fundraising is started by a spouse.
Pike said work to improve the income support system has been ongoing for several months, including consultation with funeral home operators.
He said he hopes the process will be completed by early fall.
“We certainly recognize that we need to make some changes. We fully recognize that [government money] for funerals hasn’t changed, you know from our perspective, in a number of years — and we know theirs have. So we’re going to try and do something with that end of it as well.”
But Pike reiterated that the $2,338 the province provides is still enough for a basic funeral — which doesn’t include things like cremation or a more expensive casket, St. Croix’s email said.
“We cover the full cost of funerals. So people who are on income support will not have to pay anything. Once we pay the cost, that’s it,” he said, adding the province has paid for close to 700 funerals for residents of income support over the past two years.
“We are looking at increasing that at some point, but there is no cost to the family when the person who’s deceased is on income support.… We do know we need to work with [funeral home operators] to increase that.”
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