3 p.m.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/05/2020 (1598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What do you imagine people would say at your funeral? Well, if you die during a pandemic, not much.

That time of coming together to remember someone’s life has been all but eliminated. There is no storytelling, no shared memories over dainties, no tears over coffee, no heartfelt eulogies delivered in crowded rooms.

Now, everything has a chilly feel to it.

Funeral homes have approached the new grieving reality in different ways. Some have ceased holding viewing ceremonies altogether because of the limit of 10 people at a gathering, but at Friends Funeral Service on north Main Street near Kildonan Park, viewings continue and the staff is preparing for one at the moment.

With specific times booked, a limit of 10 people inside at one time and expectations of little, if any, physical contact among the mourners, things are very different.

“It’s clinical. You’re still providing an event but there’s no sharing of emotion, there’s no support. So for family, there’s at least an opportunity to say goodbye to their loved one, but then they can’t do that in the presence of their friends,” says executive director Harry Froese.

“Normally, people are coming through and you want to hear all of those stories that you’ve never heard before,” says funeral director Danielle Froese. “Now you never will, because you’ll never meet that stranger who comes to the funeral who went to high school with your dad.”

“You’re still providing an event but there’s no sharing of emotion, there’s no support.”

In instances where the immediate family numbers more than 10, heartbreaking choices must be made about who will be present for burials or any religious ceremonies.

There are some cases where medical advice has had to be ignored. Pallbearers carrying a casket can hardly remain two metres apart, Froese says. And what happens when none of the 10 family members selected to be at the service is able to carry the casket?

They’re all problems staff have had to address over the past few weeks.

As employees set up the viewing room, they place 10 carefully spaced apart chairs around the large room.

Different, indeed.

— Sarah Lawrynuik