ST. LOUIS — Burying loved ones due to COVID-19 has placed unexpected grief and costs on many families throughout the pandemic and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's COVID-19 funeral assistance program is there to help.
St. Louis resident Terrell Butler has continued to grapple with the loss of his 76-year-old grandmother Mary Heidleburg, who died of COVID-19 in December after contracting the virus inside a nursing home.
"Within four days, she went from being stable to calling out on her cellphone to eating, to everything just really fell apart," Butler said.
Butler said that fortunately, finances had not been a part of the family's grief.
"I was able to utilize insurance policies and things like that to cover those costs, but there are some families that literally weren't able to bury their loved ones," he said.
Butler utilized FEMA's assistance program which he learned of through his friend Brandon Henry, who's the president of Henry Funeral and Cremation Services in south St. Louis.
Henry said he's notified families of the program and helped them with paperwork.
"(I've) probably heard back from about six or seven families that I know had received payments back. It was no deviation whether that was insurance or out of pocket," Henry said.
As of Jan. 3, FEMA has provided more than $1.6 billion to families to assist with COVID-19-related funeral expenses—$30 million of that went to more than 7,400 families in Missouri.
Eligible COVID-19 funeral assistance expenses typically include funeral services, cremation and internment.
Required Documents
- Official death certificate that shows the death occurred in the United States, including the U.S. territories and District of Columbia.
- If the death certificate was issued between Jan. 20 and May 16, 2020, it must either:
- 1) attribute the death directly or indirectly to COVID-19 or
- 2) be accompanied by a signed statement from the original certifier of the death certificate or the local medical examiner or coroner from the jurisdiction in which the death occurred listing COVID-19 as a cause or contributing cause of death. This signed statement must provide an additional explanation, or causal pathway, linking the cause of death listed on the death certificate to COVID-19.
- If the death certificate occurred on or after May 17, 2020, the death certificate must attribute the death directly or indirectly to COVID-19.
- If the death certificate was issued between Jan. 20 and May 16, 2020, it must either:
If eligible for funeral assistance, families will receive funds by funds by direct deposit or a check by mail, depending on the option chosen when applying for assistance, according to FEMA.
COVID-19 cases have continued to rise in certain areas of the country, including St. Louis and costs have risen in the funeral industry.
"It's something that we should think about more because something that's inevitable," Henry said.
Applicants can call the COVID-19 funeral assistance helpline at 844-684-6333, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.