It's not a myth: death rate spikes during the holidays
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Matt Schellhaas, supervisor of Schellhaas Funeral Home in Bakerstown,pushes back the dividers to open the chapel area as he gets ready for a funeral service Thursday morning.
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Bill DeSano had been in and out of hospitals for years because of his diabetes.
But this year, there was no way the 59-year-old Shaler man was going to spend Christmas in the hospital, despite a stomach ailment that left him listless on Christmas Eve.
"Oh, no, he wanted no part of the hospital," said his mother, Marie.
On Christmas morning, Mrs. DeSano, who lived with her son, found him unconscious in his bed. She called 911 and paramedics worked on him for 15 minutes.
"But then the officer comes out and tells me, 'I'm sorry. He's gone,' " she said.
It was hard enough losing her only child, but Mrs. DeSano said it seemed doubly cruel to lose him on Christmas.
"I mean, then to have to call people that day and tell them of his passing," she said, choking up. "I just can't believe he's gone."
Unfortunately, Mr. DeSano's death is an all-too-common occurrence around the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
Although sometimes dismissed as anecdotal myth, the spike in holiday deaths has long been a stark reality to those who deal with it as their jobs, from funeral home directors to priests and emergency room staffers.
The Rev. Don Breier, pastor at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland, has seen it this season.
"I just had my second funeral this week and I'm doing my third tomorrow," Father Breier, a priest for 41 years, said Tuesday. "I've noticed over the years that it is true" that deaths increase over the holidays.
As for why it happens, Father Breier said: "I'm a firm believer that the Lord gives us our day and there's not a thing we can do to change it."
Matt Schellhaas grew up in the funeral business and noticed the jump in funerals over the holidays in college, when he'd come home for winter break and work nearly nonstop. "But it was never like that during summer vacation," he said.
"For some reason, we do find ourselves busier around the holidays," said Mr. Schellhaas, now supervisor of his family's Bakerstown funeral home, which as of Tuesday had already scheduled eight funerals for the week, about double the normal volume. "There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason ... though people in the industry tend to say it's because of the cold."
First Published December 31, 2010 12:00 am
