Wind-whipped snow dots Palmetto’s Lakeside Memorial Gardens as a white hearse approaches in the distance.
It is alone. No police escort. No limousine. No trail of tears.
Beneath a blue pole tent, the Rev. Howard Creecy watches the hearse approach. Nearby, outside the cover of the tent, four cemetery workers stand.
Creecy steps out to greet the driver as the workers walk to the rear to remove the casket.
“I have a responsibility to see my clients have dignity in death,” said Creecy, the Fulton County chaplain. “I try to provide that for them.”
It’s hard enough making a living these days, but dying is just as tough for the poor.
Metro Atlanta counties traditionally spend around $1,200 tops for what were once referred to as “pauper’s funerals.” Fulton’s contract includes a cemetery plot, vault, opening and closing of the grave, lowering services and perpetual care.
As the casket is carried to the tent, the Rev. Clifton Dawkins, the county’s assistant chaplain, stands erect. He bows slightly over the coffin and begins a prayer. Also in the tent are the hearse driver and Creecy.
The service lasts about four minutes. The workers lift the casket, then carry it gingerly about 50 yards to a deep channel where five other caskets lay inside new vaults. The casket, the sixth and final one today, is lowered and covered.
Jeff Colquitt, senior director of Donehoo-Lewis Funeral Service in Hapeville, is the hearse driver. He said he serviced 12 indigent funerals last year, up about one-third from earlier years.
Among metro Atlanta counties who track the numbers, Fulton leads the way in funerals for the poor.
Creecy, who has buried more than 900 during the past three years, said the county schedules services about 15 minutes apart beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He is notified by the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services on Mondays and Wednesdays whether arrangements have been made for any indigent funerals the following day. Certification of whether a person qualifies for indigent burial is determined by DFACS.
Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton counties place a $1,200 cap on each indigent funeral. Last year, Gwinnett spent about $82,000 on the services, slightly down from the year before, said Rhonda Etheridge, treasury division director. The county does not keep records on the number of funerals. DeKalb officials said the county spent $130,000 on services last year, about the same as the two previous years.
Clayton records show the number of funerals has declined steadily over the past three years, from 43 in 2007 to 21 in 2008 and 13 last year. Last year, Cobb had 43 indigent funerals, down slightly from 45 in 2008 but up from 23 in 2007. Fulton buried 275 indigents last year, about 50 fewer than in 2007 and 2008.
Jim Keesee, Lakeside Memorial president, said the Palmetto cemetery makes no distinctions; the poor are buried among those interred with full services. “We don’t treat them any differently just because they’re poor,” he said.
Relatives can later have a marker placed at the grave site, he said.
Of the day’s six funerals, four have no family or friends in attendance. About a dozen family members crowd beneath the tent for the third funeral. Later, a van from an assisted living home unloads several residents who pay their respects during the fourth funeral.
Each time, Creecy follows the casket to the grave. It is a procedure he has performed more than 10,000 times in his 27 years with the county.
“My job is not done till we go all the way to the end,” he said.
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