LAS VEGAS (AP) – Funeral traditions are designed to get mourners through anguish. Memorial services, viewing the body, flowers, comforting words, tears and hugs can help bring closure.
But social distancing rules invoked to stem the spread of the coronavirus have made memorials and burials a challenge for families and funeral directors like Billy Vallie Jr. at Davis Funeral Homes & Memorial Park in Las Vegas.
Gov. Steve Sisolak’s mandate in mid-March limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people also applies to funerals, including those for the 204 people who state health officials say have died from COVID-19 as of Saturday morning.
Funeral homes have adjusted to the directives by limiting in-person viewings, adding virtual services, sanitizing, rotating audiences, caravans, FM streams from cemeteries and balloon releases.
“We’re taking that family who’s just lost someone, who’s now grieving,” Vallie told the Las Vegas Sun. “They couldn’t see their loved one at the hospital and they couldn’t get near them. And now they can’t have their family around them to say goodbye.”
“Of course that’s not normal anywhere, ever,” he said.
Davis funeral home has implemented livestreaming from the funeral home chapel and lets shifts of 10 mourners inside at a time. After one group leaves, the room is disinfected and 10 more people can enter.
Vallie said his father’s funeral homes in West Texas have seen caravans arrive with people lining both sides of the street, keeping away but supporting the grieving family. Cemetery services broadcast by radio let people listen from their cars.
Some families are foregoing funeral services altogether or waiting until the shutdown is lifted for a more elaborate memorial, said Laura Sussman of Kraft-Sussman Funeral and Cremation Services. Her funeral home also streams services online for people who aren’t able to travel because of the virus.
Most people with the virus experience symptoms such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems can face severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Vallie said his funeral home has handled several COVID-19 victims, and staff members take infectious disease precautions including wearing protective equipment while embalming a body.
Jesus Carrillo, whose father, Jesus Carrillo-Garcia, was one of the first COVID-19 victims in the Las Vegas area, said he received calls from loved ones who couldn’t attend a funeral because of social distancing protocols. He imagined a memorial for his father would have drawn a big crowd.
The family decided on cremation, to split the remains and ship an urn to his native Guadalajara, Mexico. The son said he hopes maybe this summer they can host a memorial to honor his 66-year-old father.
“A funeral to me is you go to see the body and you have a Mass and you see them get buried,” he said. “And we’ll have to skip that and just have a Mass where we remember him … and celebrate his life instead.”
