FAYETTEVILLE, Ark — Coronavirus is affecting everything in our lives, especially when it comes to the way we grieve and mourn the loss of a loved one.
Funerals are a time when family and friends gather to celebrate the life of the person who passed. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, memorial services look and feel much different.
“Then it hit me, 'oh my gosh are we going to be able to have a funeral service' and how is that going to work and it was a very unusual feeling,” said Gordon Allison, who just had to plan his late wife's funeral.
It's something most haven't experienced before, planning a funeral during a global pandemic.
“We could have had five to 700 people at a service the other day and we had 14,” said funeral home owner Scott Berna.
The service of 14 was held for 58-year-old Susan Allison at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, who passed away suddenly after battling an illness for several months.
Susan was married to her husband, Gordon, for 30 years. He said it was a beautiful but difficult day.
“The difficulty was we weren’t able to be together and we wanted to honor Susan and be a witness for Christ Jesus. We weren’t able to do that with our larger family and friends,” Gordon said.
More and more funeral homes around the country are no live-streaming and recording those services in order to follow the CDC guidelines and limit the number of people in attendance.
Nelson Berna Funeral Home is one of them.
“We’re sending them fillies through dropbox, we are putting the video on our website if they want us too so that their family members that are out of town can still feel apart of the service,” Berna said.
Gordon said the hardest part is not having that human touch, hugs, crying in someone's arms and even having loved ones in the same room. These are the things people need during the grieving process.
“That’s where a real fellowship aspect occurs and you are really encouraged and comforted when you are going through and starting a grieving process when people are near you and around you,” Gordon said.
RELATED: Ways to give back to local community non-profit organizations during the coronavirus outbreak
