‘we seem like the bad guys’: funeral homes amid covid

when the covid-19  pandemic was declared in 2020, much of the world ground to a halt. many industries buckled under the pressure of slowing economies — e xcept for the business of death. in quebec, funeral homes were busier than ever. the province has seen nearly half of all covid-19 deaths in canada and was named the hardest hit region during the first wave.

“[in] the beginning, it was just survival,” says bridget fetterly, president of montreal-based kane and fetterly funeral homes , of the deluge of calls she received. “it was more like order-taking.”

quebec limited funeral gatherings of 25 people in red zone regions, though early on in the pandemic, there were reports of some cemeteries limiting mourners to just two people. currently, new covid cases are dropping and the entire province is in the green zone. funeral ceremonies with an audience of up to 250 people are now permitted provided they remain seated; indoor gatherings that involve offering condolences, or viewing the body or ashes, can see up to 50 people get together.

loss, grief and technology
for sarah-anne leblanc, a quebec-based funeral director and embalmer, video calls became an important part of the funeral planning process — much to the dismay of families, as well as the employees of the funeral home. and while virtual meetings offered a way to mourn at a time when in-person meetings were not allowed, the use of technology also created space between families and funeral home employees — a disconnect that many in the funeral business are not used to.

waiting to say goodbye
only closed caskets and cremation are allowed for those who died from covid-19. what fetterly finds most difficult is when families and loved ones are unable to see the deceased in a state of rest. 

research points to an association between not being able to say goodbye to a dying loved one and complicated grief, which is a chronic form of grief where a person might alienate themselves from others and have extreme difficulty accepting a death.

andrea warnick is a registered nurse, psychotherapist and thanatologist, an expert in the study of death. she recommends finding ways to maintain connections to the deceased through ritual, whether it’s a zoom-based funeral or even something smaller and more personal.