? for Tri-City Area people - thanks, we have a location

[walden]

And especially for anyone familiar with Troy, NY. FIL passed peacefully this morning. Very sad, not unexpected, but sooner than we had hoped. We thought we had planned and the funeral is all taken care of, but . . . this important piece got over-looked.

We need to find a place to have an "after the funeral" reception next week. Preferably in Troy (we do have a good fall-back location in Albany if we can't find anywhere closer) but most of his old friends were in Troy, the funeral is in Troy, and we want the location to be really easy for the seniors attending the funeral.

Location needs to have good space and a private room that can hold 50+ people comfortably. Disabled access is a must. Comfortable is a must. Decent buffet-style lunch foods are required. Bar and alcohol not required. Budget is not really important, but these are not high-faluting people so cosy will be the order of the day.

None of FIL's close family have lived in Troy for years so some of the places they/we all remember may not be nice today. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give us.

 

[dejr_8]

http://www.redfrontrestaurant.com/catering_page.html

I enjoyed the meals at the Red Front when I lived in Troy. Give them a call and see if they can suggest a location - they can supply the food.

 

[walden]

Many thanks for the input and I'm placing the call.

Red Front is great, they catered MIL's funeral. But for that one we had a location in a cousin's house, but those cousins moved. The location is the thing. Hope Red Front can suggest something. Weirdly SIL doen't like them. Don't know why.

DH is over in NY dealing with a lot of stuff, including SIL going fairly postal (she has a history of doing that.) I'm still home trying to make things easier for everyone. As far as I can.

I'll be checking back, and googling. Any more thoughts on locations in Troy?

 

[Disney Doll]

I don't know a thing about Troy but I am sorry for your loss and the fact that your DH has to deal with a crazy sibling at this difficult time.

 

[Imzadi]

Nothing to add really, but I'm sorry for your loss.

You might want to add to your thread title, Central NY, as Troy/Albany is more central. It's 3 hours from NYC. You'll get different people responding, who may know that area. I *think* the NY tristate area is considered lower, closer to where NYC/NJ/CT kind of all cross.

Maybe check out a few places through TripAdvisor.com, for their recent reviews of places.

 

[debster812]

I'd actually check with the funeral director as well. If the funeral is in the same town, I'm sure they have a list of places they know of, and would recommend.

 

[clh2]

Sorry to hear of your loss. And always harder over the holidays.

Just a thought - did you FIL belong to a church or synogoue? Do they have some sort of room that you could use? Again - I know some of these things are regional, our church often holds funeral luncheons. We would be able to have a funeral luncheon at our church, regardless of whether or not the actual funeral was held there or not.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Okay, I'm down here in Louisiana, but I live to do internet research.

The Rensselaer Banquet & Conference Facility is located in Troy and is apparently right next to the Hilton Garden Inn. It looks absolutely lovely and might have a space that would do well.

The Rensselaer Technology Park in Troy has a very, very nice events venue called "Pat's barn" (the website makes it look quite lovely).

The Best Western in Troy has conference room space as does the Holiday Inn Express in Latham. For either one of these (or for the Hilton Garden Inn) you could also ask if there is a Presidential suite or some sort of arrangement so that you could host some guests up in the rooms.

The town of Brunswick has a community center that also looks nice.

The Hudson Valley Community College is located in Troy, you could check to see if they have any spaces that would be appropriate.

 

[golfgal]

Where will the funeral be held? Around here most funerals are held at a church and the lunch after is at the church itself. Is that a possibility?

 

[walden]

Many thanks everyone, and especially Snarlingcoyote for all that research! Some good ideas here.

The church does have a meeting room which we could use, but it is a basement room and rather institutional. We all remember it as very chilly in winter too. We thought the Best Western was quite run down the last time we stayed there, but the community centers were really good suggestions!

I think we have got it covered at the Rensselaer, a very nice room apparently, but I am going to check out Hudson Valley by phone before I book it. Hudson Vally is just up the road. Silly thing is, we could have used a lovely room in the NF where FIL has been living for 2+ years, but SIL wouldn't hear of it. She is taking this very hard.

Thank you all for the condolences, and I will certainly pass them on to the rest of the family. Truthfully, though, this is one of those situations when we should think of death as a mercy and a blessing. My FIL had advanced Alzheimers, he was a longtime type 2 diabetic and we were told recently that he was in stage 4 (almost end-stage) renal failure. Although the family agreed on palliative care, and pain control is excellent these days, that can be a slow and uncomfortable way to go. As it is, he developed pneumonia and was only really sick for 24 hours. Sad though it is, we should be happy he did not suffer longer.

Thanks again.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Good. I'm glad you were able to find what you needed! My DMIL passed at 96 about 2 years ago; she'd had senile dementia for a few years. It is difficult to see any loved one go, even when you know they were ready and it was time. It's hard and I'm sorry you have to deal with drama during it.