Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home

12/05/2024

We already shared a post a couple weeks back on the topic of holiday grief.

This is just a reminder of some helpful tips to help navigate the coming holidays in the midst of your grief journey.

12/04/2024

We are honored to have been entrusted with the final care of Charles Townsend, 87, of Binghamton.

Share memories & support the family

12/04/2024

We wish to thank our friends at Endicott Florist for sending us this nice Christmas poinsettia.

12/04/2024

We are honored to be entrusted with the final care of Marjorie Hallock, 88, of Binghamton and a retiree of New York Telephone.

Share memories & support the family

12/04/2024

Today's "Ask the Funeral Director" is a question that gets asked every year - Do cemeteries close or stay open for burials during the cold winter season?

The answer is yes and no -depending on the cemetery and depending on their legal operational status.

A deeper explanation -

First, New York State cemetery law requires cemeteries to remain open for burial year round.

Many people assume that snow and frost require the cemetery to close for the winter. That is completely untrue!

Since few grave are dug by hand today, the large equipment, such as a backhoe, have little or no difficulty in digging through the frost. There are also special heater elements that can be installed over a grave to melt the frost prior to digging the grave.

There are many reasons to continue burials throughout the entire year - allows for the completion of services, so as not to delay or complicate grief reactions; meets religious customs and traditions and from a very practical point - where would we store all these unburied dead if nobody buried in the winter?

There are a few reasonable loopholes in the law though - a burial can be delayed during a storm, allowing the cemetery time to clear proper access to the gravesite. Additionally, any additional costs for snow removal (plowing, shoveling pathways) can be added to the cost of the routine opening fee. If a family refuses to pay the extra charge, the burial will be put off until a future date. Also cemeteries not under control of the NYS division of cemeteries ( municipal, religious and private family cemeteries) are exempt from this law.

In instances where safe access cannot be established, or costs are prohibitive, there can be a temporary hold placed on the burial until such time as the burial can be safely made.

If you have any questions about funerals, cremations or related topics, please ask and I will be glad to answer it here.

12/03/2024

We honored to be entrusted with the final care of Kevin Mundt, 53, of Binghamton. He was employed by Visions FCU for many, many years.

Share memories & support the family

12/03/2024

We are honored to be entrusted with the final care of Albert J. Roberts, Jr., 69, of Endicott. Some might remember him driving Mister Softee Ice Cream trucks or Here's the Twist.

Share memories & support the family

12/03/2024

Did you ever wonder why you never get an answering service when you call Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home?

It is because a funeral director answers every single call personally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We NEVER use an answering service.

"Why" you ask? Simple - because we believe you need to know serving you and your needs begins with that first phone call to us. From first to last, serving the needs of our client families is our singular focus. Nobody likes voice directories or waiting for a return call after you leave a message with a telephone operator.

Many funeral homes screen calls (we have annoying telemarketers call us too) or automatically turn their phones over to answering service operators for evenings, weekends and holidays - exactly the time we should not turn our phones over to others.

If you are calling a funeral home on an evening, a weekend or a holiday it is because you are in need of our professional services and a funeral home committed to serving you should be there to attend to your needs immediately.

It may not seem that significant, but when you have to make that 2:00 am phone call, you will be reassured by the fact that the first and only voice you hear will be a competent professional funeral director ready to assist you immediately and provide calm assurances that we are here to serve you and serve you well.
We know how hard that call is to make..... and that is why we are here for you 24 hours every day.

A different kind of funeral home

12/02/2024

Another 5 star review left by a satisfied family

During such a difficult time, Hopler & Eschbach provided compassionate care and support. Their professionalism and attention to detail made the process so much easier for our family. We’re deeply grateful for their kindness and guidance.

Katie Burns

11/29/2024

It is very, very sad when the bereaved are abused by unethical business practices.....

A Chicago monument company owner accused of stealing funds to finance wedding, homes and lavish vacations.
Gast Monuments has racked up more than a hundred complaints from grieving families who never received grave markers for their deceased loved ones.

More than 120 customers across the Chicago metro area claim they were defrauded by the company, which has now closed its doors. Several lawsuits have been filed by customers and even owner Katie Gast's own family members.

When Bart Gruzalski passed away his brother Phil wanted to ensure he was remembered. Phil ordered a grave marker from Gast Monuments, a Chicago business that had been open for more than 140 years.

“They’ve been [here] almost as long as my family’s been here in Chicago,” Gruzalski told reporters. The business was also located just a few streets away from his brother's cemetery.

But for the next two years, Bart’s grave remained unmarked. Despite reaching out to Gast Monuments several times, Gruzalski never received his brother’s marker. The company’s Google review page includes reviews from customers going back several years claiming Gast Monuments did not deliver their monuments. The company's social media pages include similar complaints.

“This is like a disaster, you know, that there’s so many people affected, so many people that really got robbed," he said.

Gruzalski’s just one of several customers in Lake and Cook counties who’ve been duped, but customers are fighting back.

According to these claims, grieving families paid for headstones, grave markers, and even mausoleums that were never delivered. One lawsuit was filed by three siblings who ordered a $300,000 mausoleum from the company in 2019. As of 2024, the project had not been started.

According to their suit, Gast “engaged in a pattern of taking money from grieving families” while “bragging about” traveling around the country, referencing an Instagram post from Katie Gast with the caption:

"12 months of adventures. 83 hours of road trips. 27 flights. 16 states. 26 cities." The post also lists the cities she visited, including Key West, Panama City, Baltimore, San Francisco and Houston.

Gast's uncles have filed their own lawsuit against her, accusing Katie, her brother, and her father of taking out loans against company assets and lavishly spending on personal expenses, including her wedding, travel, a home for herself and her brother and other luxury items.

11/29/2024

This is at least the second home we have seen built from empty embalming fluid bottles.

We love the idea of reusing and recycling.

Sadly, today most embalming fluid comes to us in plastic bottles (which we wash and recycle).

Would you live in a home built from glass bottles?

Vicki Launer has decided to sell Wyoming’s Crystal Castle near Crystal Lake and Curt Gowdy State Park for $325,000. The one-bedroom, one-bath home was…

11/28/2024

Remembering those absent from us in body, but preset in spirit and memory.

11/27/2024

So far our campaign begun on Veteran's Day has met with little response.

We have done this since 2021 and found the community very supportive in the past.

We hope people just forgot to send in a check (we have only received two donations to date this year)

It's not too late - make your donation now and mail it to the funeral home.

We are accepting donations until Pearl Harbor Day.

Every dollar you give will be matched. Help us help a veteran in need.

Thank you

Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home

PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE THIS POST (to help maximize viewership for potential donations)
In recognition of Veterans Day and our veterans, we once again are instituting our annual fundraiser for the Southern Tier Veterans Support Group.
We seek donations from the community and we match those donations dollar for dollar up to a total of $2,500.
Your dollars are in essence doubled.
Working together we can make a donation of $5,000.
For those of you who are not familiar, the STVSG is a local grassroots veterans service charity which uses donated funds to meet the needs of local veterans - such as with food, rent, car repairs, furniture, medical bills - just about any need a veteran can have.
We are proud to support the STVSG and hope you will help us maximize our donation.
Donations can be mailed to the Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home, 483 Chenango St. Binghamton, NY 13901.
Checks should be made payable to the Southern Tier Veterans Support Group.
We will run the campaign from today until Pearl Harbor Day - 7 December 2024.

11/27/2024

Attention sports fans - would you want to be buried in your favorite team's stadium?

(Our question is what happens when and if the stadium is removed or demolished -what happens then or worse, your descendants go to a rival college?)

Superfans are telling their loved ones that they have one request: Spread my ashes on the field.

11/26/2024

This is very real - while not often to the extreme of creating a false narrative, there are many third party websites which "steal" obituaries from funeral home and newspaper websites, alter the text and create their own version of your loved one's obituary - all with the intent of making money from flower sales, memorial tributes.

When I spoke to one such company - they made it very clear that they have every right to take publicly shared information, reformat it and utilize it for their own use - and that is has been confirmed by judicial decisions (Echovita - one of the primary offenders).

If you Google someone who recently died, you might see a flood of near-identical videos of men reading obits. Here’s why.

11/25/2024

To all those in the funeral service community - we are hiring again.

Our steady growth requires us to add another funeral director to our existing staff.

If you know of any potential candidates, please send them our way. A generous finder's fee will be paid for anyone suggesting a successful candidate.

Please share with any interested parties

About the job:

About the job
The Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home in Binghamton, NY has an opening for a licensed funeral director (preferred) or resident. We are a family owned funeral home with a strong history of sustained growth over the past 15 years. We serve over 250 families each year.
The funeral home serves a diverse clientele which provides many opportunities to utilize your skills and experience, as well as learn new skills and experiences.
We respect that our staff are professionals so staff members are given an opportunity to work in all aspects of funeral home operations with training provided for any weak points of experience.
We offer a balance of time on and off call. vacation, health and pension contributions, paid CE, performance bonuses and a positive work environment are all offered.
Binghamton offers many social and recreational activities (semi pro baseball and hockey, symphony,opera, museums, a state university and community college with many events, outstanding summer events and festivals (Speediefest, LUMA projection arts festival and Dicks Open golf tournament, to name a few) as well as convenient travel distance from major metropolitan markets. The quality of life of a larger city, with an affordable cost of living and many comforts not found in other cities it's size.
Salary is competitive and commensurate with related work experience.
This will be a good career move for the right person.
If interested, please contact Kurt Eschbach at [email protected] or 607.722.4023.

11/25/2024

On November 25, 1950, the so-called “storm of the century” hit the eastern part of the United States, killing 353 and causing millions of dollars in damages. Also known as the “Appalachian Storm,” it dumped record amounts of snow in parts of the Appalachian Mountains. Record low temperatures were recorded in Tennessee and North Carolina even without the wind chill. In Mount Mitchell, NC, a temperature of 26 degrees below zero was recorded.

The storm was unique, however, because it featured not only extremely strong winds and heavy snow, but both record low and high temperatures. Buffalo ,NY saw no snow, but experienced 50 mile-per-hour winds and 50-degree temperatures.

Power was out to more than 1 million customers during this storm. It actually affected 22 states, killing 353 people and creating $66.7 million (1950 dollars) in damage. U.S. insurance companies paid more money out to their policyholders for damage from this storm than for any other previous storm.

11/25/2024

We have shared this story before, but since it is in the news again, we share it again.

We think this is a wonderful and honorable service provided by these students.

Ever life matters, often no more so than for those who pass almost forgotten.

,

"The real service ... is when you can show up and be present to people."