Manhattan, NY – The man who has held up his great-aunt’s cremation for nearly three months believes the 105-year-old has spoken to him from beyond the grave asking to be buried instead, a relative said.
James Pollak, who lives in Israel and objects to cremation on religious grounds, thinks Ethel Baar’s soul is “crying out to him to save her,” his sister told the Daily News yesterday.
Baar’s body has been in a cooler inside the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel since September while Pollak attempts to overturn her wish to be cremated.
A judge will attempt to resolve the dispute next month.
“After she died, he felt Auntie Ethel now knows that she was wrong about cremation and wants to be buried,” Pollak’s sister, Nancy Pollak, said. “We have all been begging him to just withdraw his objection.”
Baar stated her desire to be cremated in a 1999 will and she paid the funeral home in full for the service five years ago. Her New York relatives say her wishes were very clear and are outraged they have not been granted.
James Pollak is an Orthodox Jew, but relatives said Baar was not a religious person. Operators of the funeral home said they felt caught in the middle of an odd family feud.
“It’s a horrible end to her life story,” the holdout’s sister said.