Count on Your Funeral Home to Support You
Death and the rituals that surround it have been significantly disrupted during the current novel coronavirus pandemic. However, you can count on your funeral home to provide the support you need.
While making arrangements for funerals at Roanoke, VA funeral home, you will become aware – if you’re not already – that the traditional funeral process has been drastically altered because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The traditions of funerals that have been done, in one way or another, throughout the history of humans are in place because they offer support, comfort, and care in the face of the loss of someone you love. People gather around and close in to hold you and your grieving family in a cocoon of warmth and concern in the early days following the death of your loved one.
With social distancing restrictions in place that limit the number of people who gather together, the gathering around and closing in has been put on hold right now. And you, undoubtably, may feel deprived and cheated out of the experience you expected and you need.
That’s a normal reaction, but your funeral home and your funeral director will support you as you adjust to the new reality of funerals and as you plan for, in the future, when the restrictions are lifted, the funeral you want to have for your loved one.
Most funerals include a visitation, which allows people to come through your family’s line and offer their condolences and sympathy to you. While this kind of visitation is impossible with the current social distancing restrictions, you do have some alternative ways to have a visitation.
Work with your funeral director to set up a drive-though visitation. People can come to the funeral homes in their cars and offer their condolences, sitting in their cars with the windows down. While there are no hugs or handshakes, this can still be a very comforting experience for you and your family, and it gives other mourners an opportunity to pay their respects to your deceased loved one and offer their sympathy for you.
Virtual funerals are, right now, the only way to have a funeral service that can be “attended” by more than the maximum number allowed to gather in person. Your funeral home may offer livestreaming of the funeral service or you may choose to have people join in the funeral service using a video meeting application like Zoom or Facebook Messenger’s videochat application.
Again, this experience isn’t the same as having all the mourners there in person with you and your family, but it is better than not having anyone, so to speak, there at all.
By all means, work with your funeral home to plan a full funeral service (for example, if your loved one was a military veteran and you want military honors as part of the service) that people can attend in person in the future.
Your funeral home can also support you by providing an online memorial tribute to your loved one. The funeral home usually can make this memorial tribute when you provide pictures and the songs you’d like to include or, if you want, you and your family can make the memorial video for the funeral home to upload with your loved one’s obituary.
Your funeral home will support you by taking care of everything that happens behind the scenes when your loved one dies. This includes notifying the Social Security Administration, obtaining certified death certificates, and making burial arrangements with the private or national cemetery (if your loved one was a military veteran).
For more information on support for funerals at Roanoke, VA funeral home, our compassionate and experienced staff at Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory is here to help.
