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Heslam: Priest, funeral director see horrors of heroin | Boston Herald
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Heslam: Priest, funeral director see horrors of
heroin
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‘TEARS TO MY EYES’: Father Joe White, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul’s Church in South Boston, has seen too
many in his parish die of heroin overdoses.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
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By: Jessica Heslam
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South Boston funeral director Dave Casper buries people for a living, but with the heroin epidemic raging,
he’s burying them before their time, and he’s tired of it.
South Boston’s Father Joe White, compelled to deliver the overdose victims’ eulogies, weeps for them.
“I don’t want to bury people because of drugs,” said Casper, owner of Southie’s Casper Funeral Home. “I
want to bury people because you live a nice, long life.”
Father White, who oversees St. Vincent De Paul Parish and Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel, told me the
number of eulogies he’s delivered for people who have died from heroin overdoses has doubled, if not tripled,
since he came to the neighborhood eight years ago.
“They’re children. They’re grandchildren. They’re spouses. They’re siblings. They’re parents. They’re
professionals. They’re tradespeople,” said Father White, envisioning every one of their faces. “It brings tears
to my eyes. It does not discriminate.”
Casper handled the arrangements for South Boston mother Danielle LeBlanc, who died from a heroin
overdose April 2, leaving her 10-year-old daughter, Jocelyn Pray, orphaned. Jocelyn’s father, Robbie Pray,
died from a heroin overdose eight weeks earlier on Feb. 1. The girl’s story was profiled in the Herald last
week.
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“It’s once or twice a week,” Casper said of heroin deaths. “If you said what’s the leading killer that we have,
it’s not anything else but heroin. It’s the same story. Everybody’s been doing so good and the one day they
slip up — here they are.”
Casper said his funeral home tries to help with the costs as much as they can.
Father White has been involved with many families who have lost someone to heroin, including LeBlanc and
Pray’s kin. LeBlanc was 29. Pray was 30. “The age range is varying,” said Father White. “It could be
anywhere from late teens to 50s.”
These days, the pastor said, it’s rare that a family doesn’t want him to talk about their relative’s addiction in
the eulogy. Families are more open, Casper added, and no longer “sugar-coating things.”
And as Father White tries to comfort the anguished families left behind, there’s one thing he makes clear:
“There’s nothing more or less that anyone could or could not have done.”
Like Casper, the pastor sees many people who had been sober for a period of time before the fatal overdose.
The epidemic is so harrowing the Archdiocese of Boston has asked Father White to create a plan for clergy
and parishes to help people struggling with heroin addiction and their families. That includes getting them into
treatment programs and bereavement counseling for relatives.
The pastor also makes a point to check in with funeral directors, like Casper, on how they are doing.
Casper, who lives in the suburbs, is “petrified” for his own three children.
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http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/jessica_heslam/2015/05/heslam_p... 5/10/2015
Heslam: Priest, funeral director see horrors of heroin | Boston Herald
“I’m not afraid to bring them into the funeral home and say, ‘Hey, this is what will happen if you do drugs,’”
Casper said. “It’s everywhere. I can’t think of anything else I’m more afraid off.”
More On: Casper Funeral Home
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Heslam: Priest, funeral director see horrors of heroin | Boston Herald
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