Anthony Funeral & Cremation Chapels

Relph, named Mr. Basketball in 2003 as the state's top high school senior player, was inducted into the Section V Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. Former McQuaid coach Joe Marchese, in a wheelchair during a battle with multiple system atrophy (MSA), was there, just as he had been during a few other important moments in Relph's life, including a rise to NCAA Division I college basketball. "The biggest thing to me is that how much he was suffering at that time, he took the time to come and partake," Relph said. "It meant a lot to me.   "Everything I achieved, would not have been possible without him. Out of anybody, it was the most important that he was there." Relph is not the only former McQuaid player with that level of respect for Mr. Marchese. Far from it. This is a tie shared through different waves of McQuaid players, including those on the 1988, 1997 and 2003 state champions, and they will remind each other of that after the death of Mr. Marchese on Tuesday. He was 68.  “He knew the game but that was kind of secondary," Section V Basketball Hall of Famer and former McQuaid star Greg Woodard, 48, said. "He also knew the kids, that was the special thing about Joe Marchese. "He was a McQuaid student, teacher and administrator, so he had a connection with the kids on and off the court. He got to know you, not just when you showed up for practice and the games. He didn’t have a cookie-cutter approach, where he treated everyone the same.” ...

Eschbach, who now owns Hopler & Eschbach Funeral Home, said 60 percent of the services he currently sells involve cremation. Across the country, cremation rates are rising as the share of traditional funeral home services such as burials are decreasing. The trend holds true in Monroe County and across New York state. Half the dispositions of bodies in 2014 in Monroe County were cremations, according to state data. In 2003, 31 percent of dispositions were cremations.  Over those dozen years, the rate increased every year but one. For families who haven't talked about final wishes, some time may be needed to think about all the options — such as whether to have a service, what to do with the ashes. The decision has ramifications, said Mark Anthony, owner of Anthony Funeral & Cremation Chapels in Monroe County — not the least of which is, "cremation is irreversible. You can't change your mind." According to the Cremation Association of North America, the national cremation rate surpassed 50 percent in 2016. The National Funeral Directors Association predicts the national projected cremation rate will reach 71 percent in 2030 and is expecting the burial rate to decrease to 23 percent. Funeral homes are adapting to the changes, which they say are spurred in part by many changes in our modern lives, including fewer strict religious beliefs, increasing geographic mobility, economic realities and even environmental concerns. "As some things have changed, funeral homes have had to change with it," said Gary Stoughton, funeral home director of Allen-Manzer Funeral Home in Spencer, Tioga County. "We are there to serve the consumer, the families, the people there. It's what they would want — what's meaningful to them." Maggi...