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Akron funeral home, ministry helping to bring remains home from Cuyahoga County morgue
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, Apr 08, 2008
It was hard enough saying goodbye to his wife.
But after Barbara Jeney died March 30, her husband, Mark, was faced with another layer of sadness and pain.
He had no money to bring her body back from the Cuyahoga County morgue because he was claiming indigence.
''This has been a living nightmare,'' he said Monday.
But now, more than a week after the 50-year-old's death, Barbara Jeney is coming home.
On Monday, Scott Mason, one of the funeral directors for the Adams Mason Funeral Home, said the Akron facility had agreed to fill out the necessary paperwork to retrieve the body of the woman and bring her body back to Akron for cremation for a price of $500 — a deep discount from a normal price of more than $1,200.
Her body was expected to be brought back to Summit County today, Mason said, for cremation at the funeral home's East Market Street location.
''Multiple times a week we see all different types of distress needs,'' Mason said.
Mark Jeney said his wife of 15 years first became ill in mid-March when she passed out on the street near Magic City Shopping Center.
She was taken to Barberton Hospital and then Akron City Hospital, where she underwent an angioplasty, he said.
After triple-bypass surgery on March 29 at the Cleveland Clinic, Jeney said his wife was taken off of life support and died.
But the family had no money to bring her body home, he said.
Al Clark, an investigator
for the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, said when an indigent person from another county dies there, Cuyahoga County's policy is that it will not pay to deliver the body to the home county.
A woman from Tuscarawas County died in January in Cleveland, he said, and her body is still at the Cleveland morgue.
Clark said officials at the coroner's office ''have been trying to get this thing (the disposition of Barbara Jeney's body) resolved.''
Jeney, 44, said his only income is $634 a month in disability payments.
A few weeks before his wife became ill, he said, the couple pawned their wedding rings and another set of rings to raise money for basic necessities. He said they received less than $75 from the pawn shop for all the rings.
She recently lost her job as a clerk at an area thrift store, he said.
''The emotional tailspin this has put on my life, it is driving me nuts,'' he said.
On Monday, he took a bus to OPEN M in Akron with his son, Robert, in hopes of speaking with an attorney from Community Legal Aid Services Inc. about his predicament. But the meeting was postponed.
Instead, Dottie Achmoody, chief executive officer of OPEN M, an ecumenical Christian ministry that serves southwest Akron, said her agency would try to help raise part of the cost of the cremation service and would ask other area agencies to assist.
Unfortunately, Achmoody said, the situation the Jeney family is facing is not uncommon.
''It is disheartening,'' she said, to see the difficult circumstances that confront impoverished people.
''It is frustration after frustration, disappointment after disappointment,'' she said. ''They feel so helpless. They have no funds.''
Jeney, who said he and his son are being evicted from their rental home in Barberton, said he was thankful that the funeral home and OPEN M had come to his aid.
There is now, he said, ''a little bit of closure.''
Mason said the funeral home realizes the Jeney family is in true need of help.
''We try to find a way, and if not, we try to find someone who can help,'' he said.
A memorial service for Barbara Jeney will be held at a later date at OPEN M, Achmoody said.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
It was hard enough saying goodbye to his wife.
Get the full article here.
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