Friends, family members and loved ones of someone who dies during COVID-19 are being denied the opportunity to grieve and say goodbye.
Not being able to say goodbye to friends, family members and loved ones, and not being able to attend funeral services, or to find a permanent resting place for a loved one is changing how people grieve.
The two new main hurdles and restrictions due to the Covid-19, Corona virus, with attending funerals, is the time and cost it takes.
The Covid19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to even attend a funeral due to local and international travel restrictions, as well as required quarantine periods. With the length of quarantine periods and it taking longer with the reduced transportation schedules, it is almost and in some cases, impossible to attend a funeral on time.
The high travel and quarantine costs are also another restrictive challenge of attending funerals with increasing airfares and quarantining costs being unaffordable. This high cost of travel doesn’t guarantee stability either, as governments at all levels implement travel restrictions without notice and airlines changing schedules without notice periods and most not issuing refunds if they don’t fly to the destination anymore.
The instability between the airlines dependability and the last minute governmental restrictions that can be imposed, is like rolling the dice whether you will make it and/or loose your money and we haven’t even the mention of the risk of catching the virus on the airplane.
To add more stress and confusion to the situation, States and Provincial governments at one time ban funerals outright and later allowed immediate family members to take part, throwing funeral arrangements into chaos. As the seriousness of the pandemic changing daily and so do the regulations and restrictions.
In coronavirus hot spots, the funeral industry struggles to keep up with the sheer volume of COVID-19 deaths forcing families to postpone their funerals and their grieving.
Whats the answer?
One of the things that the Cold 19viruses has had a major impact on is the Quick adaptation of technology. Many people have moved to online shopping, food ordering and watching movies on Netflix at an unprecedented rate which is never been seen before. One major reason for this is due to the global lockdowns and forcing people to stay in their homes. The virus has changed peoples behavior not just for the short-term but also long term as well.
This is the same for funerals as a result of the virus where technology is providing opportunity to allow families to hold funerals share feelings and grieve. When you solution has been is to stream funerals on Facebook live fourth resume meetings. Although we’re not specifically designed as a streaming solution for funerals, it has provided an easy means to stream a funeral and help deal with the family’s grief.
Another easy solution that is designed for funerals and also integrates with zoom is FuneralNotification.com.
Not only does FuneralNotification.com allow you to send out funeral notices with a zoom to notify Friends family and loved ones of a person’s funeral, it allows detailed information of the funeral and its location, other events, attendees to RSVP for the funeral as well as the option to send flowers and gifts whether they are attending or not.
FuneralNotification.com also allows you to create an online obituary with a memorial wall where everyone can interact and share with each other including posting pictures, videos, comments, stories and sharing their feelings and condolences.This allows everyone to share feelings and grieve together, no matter where they are or if anyone cannot attend.During this current period of the Covid endemic this could be a better solution for so many families.
I have left the best to last as FuneralNotification.com also has a preplanning option which allows you to record personalized text and video messages until after you are gone. This are kept confidential until your funeral notification is sent out so you can share your last wishes and feelings with your friends, family and loved ones.
Their tagline is “Give everyone the chance to say Goodbye” and their memorial wall provides a way to accomplish this as well as an ongoing online memorial for years to come.