The women undertakers of Harlem: This band of morticians in heeled boots began to feel like they were failing. The way they see it, a person should get what they want in death, even if that was never possible in life https://reut.rs/2yBBIXZ  1/6

'You want six limos and you want them painted pink? Yes. Now, we're like: you want a cremation? I'm sorry, no. You want a burial and you already have a plot and everything? Sorry, no. We don't have any room,' says Lily Sage Weinrieb 2/6

Alisha Narvaez sent her daughter to live with her twin sister, but after two weeks the distance was too much. 'I gotta make sure I keep healthy just not to harm her,' says Alisha. 'Every day I come home from work is Day Zero for her' 3/6

Nicole Warring worries about dying, or infecting her 10-year-old son. She was off of work for a week for heart palpitations from anxiety. 'It's traumatizing for everyone,' she says. 'No mortuary school can prepare you for what we're seeing now' 4/6

'Today kind of broke my heart,' says Jenny Adames, who sent her daughter to live with her mother. Adames recently caught herself snapping at her in a text exchange. 'She needs her mom. She don't need Jenny the funeral director' 5/6

The phones in the funeral parlor ring constantly, punctuated by ambulance sirens. Suppliers say they are running out of caskets and urns. Jenny says she no longer hands families the casket catalog; she just asks what color. Read the full story https://reut.rs/2yBBIXZ  6/6