'Uncharted waters': Funerals taking higher emotional toll amid coronavirus pandemic

Funeral services and viewings are designed to offer comfort and support to people grieving the deaths of loved ones. Navigating the process under coronavirus restrictions presents a unique challenge to mourners and to funeral homes serving them.

“We’re in uncharted waters. Every day the game changes,” said Terry Graft, owner, funeral director and supervisor of Kepple-Graft Funeral Home in Greensburg.

“Recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about restricting the size of gatherings during the covid-19 pandemic has disrupted our tradition of gathering extended family and friends around us to provide comfort and share our loss during funeral services,” David Peake Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, said in a March 18 statement.

“Federal and state officials have indicated one way to limit the spread of covid-19 is through limiting public gatherings (social distancing) to 10 people for the next eight weeks. Taking this precaution will limit the exposure of our community to the coronavirus,” Peake said.

The Westmoreland-Indiana-Armstrong County Funeral Directors Association also issued a statement saying it would abide by the CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines.

Emotional toll

Area funeral directors say they are complying with the recommendations, though they recognize the emotional toll the limits could have on people who essentially will have to grieve alone — and on those who will not have the opportunity to support them in person.

“I’m just wondering how families are going to react to losing a loved one, knowing that they can’t invite guests. I’ve never had this before in my career,” said Paul R. Ajak II, funeral director/owner of Weddell-Ajak Funeral Home in Aspinwall.

“We’re a business that can’t shut down. We have to be there to take care of someone’s loved one as needed. We’ll be following the recommendations on minimum person-to-person contact,” Graft said. “We’ll have private family services and no public visitation going forward for the time being.”

“The last thing we want to do is hurt an already grieving family. We just ask the community to be understanding when we limit the number of people who are coming in,” said Jason Brinker, funeral director at John J. Lopatich Funeral Home in Latrobe.

Universal precautions

“Some people don’t realize that funeral director is, to some extent, a health care-related profession. We’re very concerned with the well-being of our families,” Brinker said. “We put that first and foremost, and we’re going to follow these guidelines.”

“We have always practiced universal health precautions,” said J. Paul McCracken, owner and supervisor of J. Paul McCracken Funeral Chapel in Ligonier. “Our first duty is to protect the community from disease and contamination.”

McCracken noted, however, that limited gathering sizes are a recommendation at this point, and not a mandate.

“Unless it’s law, we will not limit the size of a gathering,” he said. “The Ligonier Valley is a very traditional community, and we would never deny a family the opportunity to grieve in the ways they’ve become accustomed to over the years.”

The PFDA asks that anyone with fever, cough or any other covid-19 symptoms refrain from attending any funeral or memorial service.

The next challenge for funeral directors will be handling arrangements for victims of covid-19, said Brian Lucas, director at Clawson Funeral & Cremation Center in Leechburg.

“What we’ve been told here recently is, if it is a suspected death or positive test for covid-19, then the doctor has to do the test and then before the body is even released, they have to sign the death certificate before we can even do the transfer of the remains,” Lucas said. “It’s not like we can just go pick up a body as usual. If it’s a suspected case, the doctor has to do his due diligence prior to the body being released.”

In handling the body, Lucas said, the funeral home is directed to use “universal precautions just like we do on every case.”

“The CDC says currently there are no known risks associated with being in the same room at a funeral or visitation service with a body of someone who has died of covid-19,” he said. “However, people should consider strongly not touching the body of someone who has passed from the (coronavirus).”