On Saturday, she accompanied the tiny caskets to their final resting place.
For the last five years, Quinn, 43, a licensed funeral director, has devoted her time to burying or cremating babies and children 18 and younger whose families can't afford funerals. She even stepped in to help the victims of the duck-boat crash last summer.
Quinn collects no salary. Her nonprofit, known as Final Farewell, is funded by donations - the bulk coming from a Berwyn multimillionaire who fears fires.
Quinn, her 9-year-old daughter, and her 19-year-old stepson live in Olney on the income of her husband, Tom. He's a funeral director at his family's business. It's one of the homes that forgo fees when burying small children.
Because there's never enough money in Final Farewell's coffers, Quinn uses her standing in the funeral community to negotiate deals for parents, getting cemeteries, casket suppliers, limousine companies, florists, and others to cut prices or work at cost.
"I've called on Trish on many occasions," said Marty Hudson, a social worker in the neonatal intensive-care unit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where the sad reality is that some babies die.
"Trish is very devoted and passionate. She feels every child has the right to a dignified burial or cremation. It's really a mission for her, and I don't know of anybody else who does this."
Roberta Edwards, whose niece Rasheedah Wilson, 33, and Wilson's three children, 8, 11, and 14, died in a North Philadelphia house fire in January, called Quinn "a blessing."
"She took care of everything," said Edwards, 49, a nurse's assistant. "We're so grateful she stepped in."
Palace of the dead
The Guckin Funeral Mansion on G Street in Kensington is a throwback to a time when the well-to-do erected estates with idiosyncratic touches, such as metal shelving built into room radiators to keep food warm.
