Sympathy flowers in Lower East Side

Sympathy sends on the Lower East Side split between two very different destinations: the family home and the funeral service. The LES itself keeps a long tradition of houses of worship and neighborhood chapels — the historic synagogues around the Bialystoker and Eldridge Street congregations, the East Broadway and Chinatown-edge houses of worship, and Grace Church and St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery just north at the NoHo edge — and service arrangements route to the downtown funeral homes a few blocks in every direction, from the East Village and NoHo chapels to the Chinatown funeral parlors along the southern edge. Condolence bouquets, meanwhile, go to the family in a tenement walk-up on Rivington or Orchard, a Seward Park or Straus Square co-op off Grand Street, or an Essex Crossing apartment. Each destination has its own protocol. A standing spray or wreath for a funeral service needs to arrive before the viewing window with the deceased's name and the service time; a condolence arrangement for a grieving family in a walk-up needs the quiet vestibule or front-desk hand-off, delivered without ceremony. The studios covering the LES know each chapel's delivery entrance and each building's hand-off rule.