Families get help with children’s burial

By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

The six children who died in a Sept. 3 fire were to be laid to rest Sept. 13, with a funeral at St. Jerome Church in Rogers Park and burial at Maryhill Cemetery in Niles.

Five of them—Kevin, 3; Suzette, 10; Eric, 12; Idaly, 6, and Vanessa, 14—were among the 10 children in the the Ramirez family, who lived in the third-floor apartment at 7706 N. Marshfield. Escarlet Ramos, 3, whom the family was baby-sitting, also died.

The funeral costs will be absorbed by the providers, with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago coordinating donations from providers including Weinstein Funeral Home, Batesville Caskets, the Wilbert Co., which will donate the concrete vaults that go outside the caskets in the ground, Bevel Granite, which will provide markers and Wholesale Florists. Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago is providing the cemetery plots and interment services, said Roman Szabelski, the cemeteries’ executive director.

The cemetery costs alone—including plots and interment services—run close to $1,700 per burial, and the rest of the funeral costs average about $7,500, he said.

It was clear from the beginning that Amado and Augusta Ramirez, whose children range in age from 19 years to 3 months, would not be able to afford funeral costs. The family had been living without electricity since May, lighting its three-bedroom apartment with candles.

Fire investigators have not released an official cause of the blaze, which occurred just after midnight, but have said they believe it to be accidental. No working smoke detectors have been found.

“The tragedy that has struck the Ramirez and Ramos families in the loss of their children calls for our compassion and our prayers,” said Cardinal George in a statement announcing the funeral assistance issued while he recuperates at home from bladder cancer surgery in July. “It is my hope that others will join me in my prayer that a loving God will strengthen these families in their grief, and that Christ’s promise of eternal life for their children will comfort them in their loss.

“May eternal rest come now to the children who died in this fire and may our faith consol their parents and families.”

“Catholic Charities is grateful to be able to help the Ramirez and Ramos families in their time of loss,” said Father Michael M. Boland, Catholic Charities’ administrator, president and CEO. “Our prayers are with both families.”

Szbaelski said Catholic Cemeteries assists families in need some 400 times a year with burial costs.

“All we do is make sure they qualify for a Catholic burial,” Szbaleski said. “Then, if it appears they are in need of burial assistance, we turn it over to Catholic Charities, and they act as sort of a clearinghouse” to make sure families receive all the services they need.

“This really is nothing out of the ordinary for us, except that it’s six burials at once,” he said. “It’s part of our ministry to the people of the Archdiocese of Chicago. It’s a corporal work of mercy to bury the dead.”