Sudbury funeral homes are busy as people honour loved ones lost during the pandemic
With the COVID-19 pandemic and health restrictions making a difficult time even harder for more than a year, funeral service providers in Sudbury say they are now busier than ever trying to honour lives lost over the last several months.
"On Saturday, we had eight different gatherings… which in Sudbury, is a large number of people to have funerals or memorial services," said Gerry Lougheed Jr., of Lougheed Funeral Homes. "This morning, I’ve already arranged three different memorial gatherings for people who died during COVID-19."
With Ontario now in Phase 3 of reopening, the capacity limit is dependent on the size of the funeral home. However, other health measures are still in place.
"We still wear the face masks. If you’re in a bubble, good for you, if you’re not in a bubble, you’re going to have the six-foot social distancing. You still have to sign a guest book with a telephone number in case there’s COVID-19 tracing," Lougheed Jr. said.
Even though things aren’t completely back to normal yet, officials said that families need these services to help get closure.
"I’ll give you an example from one of the funerals or gatherings on Saturday," Lougheed Jr. said. "He and I have been friends for 40 years. He loved his wife very, very much. She had a very, very difficult cancer journey and he was with her every moment of the way and he felt that he didn’t get that end experience with regards to his relatives, his friends, people from out of town. And on Saturday, he gave me a big hug and said 'she would have really liked this and I really like this.'"
With restrictions being eased and guest capacity no longer limited when it comes to funerals, there is also talk of a community celebration. It’s an idea that came from city councillor Michael Vagnini last year.
"We want to allow people from across the city to be able to come out and then, you know, their picture of each family member will be up on the screen and we may say a few words about them," Vagnini said. "Just sharing and breaking some bread and understanding that their loss was the loss of the community."
Officials said that whether or not this gathering moves forward will depend on the need in the community.
"The next step is to see when the rules and guidelines ease up that we can do something of this nature," Vagnini said. "Then we will be going back out into the community, talk to the people, allow them to come back to us and say 'yeah, this is something great, we want to sign up for it.' Or as you said, a lot of people are doing their celebrations of life with just their family members because it is opening up and people don’t want to wait a year or two to actually do something."
However, he said, the idea is to give everyone a chance to say goodbye properly.
"I do a thing on Christmas Day called No One Eats Alone, and we have people from the community that really have a very, very small family unit and in a time like this they also have that same small family unit and we want to be able to bring them together as well to realize, as I said earlier, that they aren’t suffering alone," he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Spectacular aurora light show to be seen across Canada Friday night
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
'Tactical evacuations' underway near Fort Nelson, B.C., as wildfires encroach
The BC Wildfire Service says 'tactical evacuations' began Friday near Fort Nelson, B.C., due to an out-of-control wildfire that has grown rapidly since it was discovered earlier in the afternoon.
Snowbirds in Vancouver for puck-drop flyby as Canucks face Oilers
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds will be performing a flyover across downtown Vancouver at the start of tonight's Stanley Cup playoff game between the Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers.
McGill University seeks emergency injunction to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
Video shows naked raccoon catching B.C. family by surprise
When Marvin Henschel spotted a strange and hairless creature wandering through a front lawn in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, he could barely believe his eyes.
Barron Trump declines to serve as an RNC delegate
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron Trump, has declined to serve as a delegate at this summer’s Republican National Convention, according to a senior Trump campaign adviser and a statement from Melania Trump's office.
Out-of-control wildfire prompts evacuation alert for Fort McMurray, Saprae Creek Estates Friday night
An evacuation alert was issued for two Wood Buffalo communities Friday night, as crews battled an out-of-control wildfire near Fort McMurray.