Body ordered buried within 7 days

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jill Bryce

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A judge on Wednesday ordered the burial within seven days of a woman whose body has been at Marra’s Funeral Home in Cohoes since July 8 because her cemetery plot was resold.

Acting state Supreme Court Judge Thomas J. McNamara ordered that Irene Belanger either be buried at St. Agnes Cemetery in Cohoes or in another cemetery chosen by the family. He also ordered that the bodies of Belanger’s husband and son be moved from their plots at St. Agnes and reburied with Irene Belanger in a three-plot lot of the family’s choosing.

McNamara also ordered the cemetery, which is owned by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, to pay all costs.

Lucille Machia, of Schenectady, Irene Belanger’s daughter, filed a lawsuit against the diocese claiming she tried to have her mother buried in the family plot at St. Agnes Cemetery at the time of her death, only to learn the plot she purchased in 1985 had been sold to someone else. In the suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Schenectady, Machia seeks $200,000 in damages.

She appeared in state Supreme Court in Albany on Wednesday morning after the cemetery filed a request to expedite the burial. Diocesan spokesman Kenneth Goldfarb said the cemetery became aware of the error in 2003, acknowledged it made a mistake and offered to provide a new, three-grave lot and to move the bodies of the two family members already buried, but the offer was declined by Machia and her attorney, John Aretakis.

At a news conference on July 31 where Machia’s lawsuit was announced, she said: “My main goal is to put my mother to rest.”

But on Wednesday, following the judge’s order, Machia said: “I have been waiting 43 days because of the cemetery and diocese’s negligence. Now I have seven days to make a decision. I am angry with the church and diocese.”

She said the experience since her mother’s death has been very emotional and that she felt very pressured in court on Wednesday and it only added to her aggravation. “It’s overwhelming. You think your family is at peace. Now you have to dig them up.”

McNamara told Machia his sole concern was that Machia’s mother be given a proper burial and that she and other family members be allowed to grieve their loss. But Aretakis said Machia felt intimidated in court and he objected several times to McNamara’s ruling and said there were outstanding legal issues that had to be resolved.

McNamara was adamant that a decision be made on Wednesday, however, and said he must follow public health law, which requires human remains to be properly interred. He said any outstanding legal matters can be resolved after Belanger is buried.

“All I care about is your wishes,” McNamara told Machia, who was visibly upset.

Aretakis said he may request a stay to block the burial.

“This is an extraordinary act of callousness and insensitivity by a diocese that has been more than reckless with innocent families for years,” Aretakis said after the court order. He said that McNamara was ordering Machia to “do what the church and diocese wants.”

Paul Marra, owner of Marra’s Funeral Home in Cohoes, said in 30 years in the funeral business he’s never seen anything like this. In court on Wednesday he said he wanted to do whatever he could to help Machia.

Machia said she had purchased the plots in 1985 for her father, brother and mother at St. Agnes Cemetery. It is one of 13 cemeteries owned by the Albany Diocese in the Capital Region.

Her father died in 1979 and her brother in 1984. They were properly buried in their plots at St. Agnes.

When her mother died on July 8 at the age of 79 of respiratory failure, Machia said, she was stunned to learn someone else was buried right next to her father in the plot she had purchased. She said the cemetery director told her she could have her family moved at her own expense .

Other options she was given included burying her mother perpendicular to her father and brother, which she didn’t want to do.

Goldfarb said that diocesan officials discovered in 2003 that a numbering error had occurred in 1979 at St. Agnes Cemetery.

A letter was sent to the family in December 2003 informing them of this situation and an offer was made to realign vaults within the lot to provide space at no charge for an additional burial. This offer was declined, according to the diocese.

In July 2007, the cemetery offered to provide a new, three-grave lot and to reinter the bodies of the two family members already buried, but this offer was declined, according to the diocese.

On July 9 of this year, cemetery officials say, they met personally with a family representative and once again offered the previous options.

McNamara told Machia that legal issues are important, but: “Get your mother buried. OK.?”