April 2021

Page A28 APRIL 2021 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A www. vischerfuneralsupplies.com Phone: 877-770-TIES (8437) Fax: 276-466-3474 E-mail: customerservice@tiesforyou.com www.tiesforyou.com STYLISH MATCHING TIES FOR PROFESSIONALS Any Size Group or Organization Call 651-450-7727 to request a wholesale catalog, Our Extra-Large Cremains Bags (13”x 15”) are perfectly sized for the Standard Plastic Human Service Urn. or visit UrnBags.com to order some bags. Just $2.90 each*. * Bags sold in multiples of 10 Choose from Black, Blue, or Burgundy J t $3. 0 each* Kryptniche Krypturn Krypturn with Casket Only kryprotek.com cneal@wilbert.com 800-826-9406 Quality Products From Convert unsold crypts into profitable niches Krypturn with Kryprotek Krypturn with bag & tray Mausoleum Protection K rypr te K 04-FHCN-675x8-KRY-Combo_3.indd 1 3/5/21 9:33 AM As part of Service Corporation International (SCI), Rizzotto was able to get some help where he needed it. Mr. Phredrick “PH” Dold, a funeral di- rector from South Carolina, volunteered to transfer to Brooklyn to help Cusimano & Russo, which was inundated with requests from families. “People were getting sick within the company. We were looking for help wherever we could get it from,” says Rizzotto. The whole state was facing issues as a result of the pandemic. Storage was a factor. Cremations were a month out. Cemeteries were backed up. Pre-Covid, a funeral home told the cemetery when they wanted the burial, but with the sheer number of deaths and new regulations, the cemeteries were telling the fu- neral homes when a burial would be possible. “Everything was up in the air. There were no promis- es that anything would be done,” states Rizzotto. Cusi- mano & Russo didn’t have a storage issue. They man- Cusimano & Russo Funeral Home Continued from Page A26 Continued on Page A29 Rizzotto adds that he had issues getting caskets and supplies, especially PPE. It got to the point that he’d call about caskets and ask, “What do you have?” Whatever it happened to be, he’d respond, “Send it to me.” When meeting with families, he’d tell them what their choices were. Everyone seemed to realize the direness of the situation. “No one complained or argued. Everyone was understanding,” says Rizzotto. He explains that one family called the funeral home, and he told them, “I’ll call you back in two days.” They were okay with that, because there were no other op- aged it, and took on as much as they could dai- ly. “The problem was that there wasn’t enough time in the day to deal with it all,” adds Rizzotto. The funeral home was receiving calls from all over the city. People would try their local fu- neral home and find out that they couldn’t take an- other deceased, so they’d go down the list and call different funeral homes in the area. “If I could help them, I would,” says Riz- zotto, adding that it was all a matter of timing. There were people from all over the city calling constantly. “We didn’t refuse anyone from our neighborhood or people with pre-arrangements,” he states. T o P lace Y our C lassified A d Call 1-800-321-7479 or visit our website at www.NomisPublications.com ADS Classified Online News Funeral Home & Cemetery online www.nomispublications.com www. nomi spub l i cat i ons . com 1 - 800 - 321 - 7479 “I Love My Funeral Director” “I Love My Cemeterian” ONLY $ 11 95 N o w i s t h e PERFECT t i me t o o r d e r t h e PERFECT g i f t s !