Edwina Martin, public administer, and Diane Kramer and Helen Timari, Foundation for Dignity presented to South Shore Rotarians during a recent meeting. While the other four boroughs of New York City relegate indigents and still births to a common grave in the City’s public burial ground on Hart Island, Staten Island has set a more humane standard for “dignified burial” of its residents.
These burials take place on Staten Island in a place that may be visited; in an accurately recorded gravesite; from which the remains may be exhumed should a close family member subsequently come forward to do so; by cemetery professionals; in a quality casket; in the thoughtful presence of those to whom care of their remains has been entrusted, and who take seriously their duty to properly lay those remains to rest.
