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
Poilievre will do 'anything to win,' must condemn Alex Jones endorsement: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is ramping up his attacks on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as he promotes his government's federal budget.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
New evidence challenges the Pentagon's account of a horrific attack as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan: CNN exclusive
New video evidence uncovered by CNN significantly undermines two Pentagon investigations into an ISIS-K suicide attack outside Kabul airport, during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
All Alberta wildfires to date in 2024 believed to be human-caused: province
There are 63 wildfires burning in Alberta's forest protection area as of Wednesday morning and seven mutual aid fires, including one in the Municipal District of Peace.
Video shows suspects waving weapons, smashing glass in Toronto jewelry store robbery
Arrests have been made after five men were captured on video rampaging through a jewelry store in Toronto, waving weapons and smashing glass display cases.
Pilot proposes to flight attendant girlfriend in front of passengers
A Polish pilot proposed to his flight attendant girlfriend during a flight from Warsaw to Krakow, and she said yes.
Ottawa injects another $36M into fund for those seriously injured or killed by vaccines
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
Ex-SNC executive sentenced to prison term in bridge bribery case
The RCMP says a former SNC-Lavalin executive has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison in connection with a bribery scheme for a bridge repair contract in Montreal.