{"id":20218,"date":"2026-07-28T20:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20218"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:36:33","slug":"no-closure-great-grandmother-cremated-against-her-final-wishes-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20218","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;No closure&#8217;: Great-grandmother cremated against her final wishes, family says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">The family of a 93-year-old woman who died in July is pressing a funeral home for answers and accountability after they allege that their loved one was cremated against her final wishes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The family of Euvy Rodney, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, said that she died on July 8 and was taken to the J. Foster Phillips Funeral Home in Jamaica, Queens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A death certificate provided by the family showed that Rodney wished to be buried in her home country of Guyana, next to her own grandmother, the family says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Instead, the family, their attorneys and civil rights leaders allege that Rodney was cremated, and the family had to &#8220;jump through hoops&#8221; to reclaim her ashes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We have lost our mom twice. We have lost her in death, we have lost her body, we have no closure for our mother,&#8221; said Christine Weaver, one of Rodney&#8217;s 11 children. &#8220;For all she has done on earth, that&#8217;s how you treat her?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On Monday, Civil Rights Leader Rev. Kevin McCall held a press conference outside the funeral home calling for an investigation into the facility to figure out why Rodney was allegedly cremated against the family&#8217;s wishes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;No funeral home should be called a funeral home if they don&#8217;t have dignity and they don&#8217;t have respect for a family &#8211; they robbed this family of that,&#8221; McCall said. &#8220;We are calling on this funeral home to be shut down immediately. The state needs to investigate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">John Eleftrakis and Wayne Wattley EEP Law Firm said it is beginning an investigation into what happened on behalf of the family and could consider a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Rodney&#8217;s family plans to hold what they call a symbolic funeral Friday in Queens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">J. Foster Phillips Funeral Home Inc. shared a statement saying:<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><em class=\" \">\u201cOur hearts are with the family affected by this situation. We are deeply sorry for the distress this has caused, and are committed to supporting them with care, compassion, and respect during this incredibly difficult time.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><em class=\" \">&#8220;For generations, J. Foster Phillips has been a trusted, family-owned funeral home, serving our community for 97 years with care and compassion. As a third-generation business, we have always been committed to treating every individual with dignity, respect, and the highest standard of care.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><em class=\" \">&#8220;We remain committed to accountability and to honoring the trust placed in us by the families we serve.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \"><em class=\" \">&#8220;Out of respect for those involved, we will not be providing further comment at this time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The family of a 93-year-old woman who died in July is pressing a funeral home for answers and accountability after they allege that their loved one was cremated against her final wishes. The family of Euvy Rodney, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, said that she died on July 8 and was taken to the J&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.abcnews.com\/images\/US\/abc_news_default_2000x2000_update_16x9_992.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}