With restrictions in place on public gatherings, area funeral homes are having to find new ways to serve customers.
The Cole County Health Department on Monday implemented the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson that events including 50 or more people be canceled or postponed. That rule is making normal business difficult for funeral homes, where visitations and funerals that are open to the public are often attended by more than 50 people.
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Dulle Trimble Funeral Home, Freeman Mortuary and Millard Family Chapels have all made adjustments to continue serving families while abiding by restrictions and guidelines from state and federal officials.
"Everything keeps changing so quickly," Kyle Trimble, of Dulle Trimble Funeral Home, said.
Trimble said essentially the limitation on events with more than 50 people translates to more private services along with immediate burial or cremation and options for public memorials later on, once those restrictions have been lifted.
"Everyone will still be able to have the service they want; it just may be at a later date," Trimble said, adding staff are making every effort to serve families in the best possible way.
Freeman Mortuary and Millard Family Chapels are offering the same options, though each has adopted a different feature to try to accommodate families who want to include more people in the process.
At Freeman Mortuary, staff is pointing to online options that allow extended family and friends to share condolences and even watch the services through webcasting.
"Until we know more, we can't have full-blown public services," said Ryan Freeman, adding their job is to find a "happy medium" between following the rules that have been set in the interest of public health and serving families who have lost a loved one.
Because many churches have closed or stopped offering in-person services, Freeman said, families will have to hold more services at the funeral home itself, though he noted they would have to abide by each church's guidelines, as each one is handling things differently.
The Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, under updated liturgical protocols for public health safety published online, announced funeral Masses and services can still be celebrated but on the condition that "no more than 10 asymptomatic immediate family members" attend. The post noted one option would be to have a burial immediately and a memorial Mass at a later date, when restrictions have been lifted, which is in line with what area funeral homes are recommending.
Jeff Hilke, funeral director with Millard Family Chapels, said one new feature to help in the situation would be a "drive-up visitation" offering at Jefferson City and Columbia locations. On Wednesday, he said, they were making changes to the physical facility to allow for a casket to be seen behind glass at the front of the building.
Reid Millard said this will allow those who wish to have a more public visitation to invite anyone who wishes to see the departed to drive up to the front and take part in the viewing without leaving the car. There will be a camera to allow the family to see and hear people taking part in the visitation, all without physical contact or filling a room with friends and family. Millard noted a staff member would be outside to direct traffic and give instructions.
Hilke said they're not exactly sure how it will work and plan to tweak it as it goes. He noted it's obviously not for everyone, but it's an option they wanted to make available.
Millard said this adjustment is not a new concept, as funeral homes in California adopted similar measures in the 1980s.
The changes have made it more difficult for families to organize and plan services the way they normally would.
Michael Meyer, of Kansas City, was in Jefferson City this week for the burial of his father, Melvin, who died March 4 at age 82. Meyer said it was difficult to plan services because of the threat of coronavirus spread. The services, which were Monday and Tuesday, had to be adjusted to meet the requirements on crowd limits.
"(It) presented some new challenges for us," Meyer said, noting he and his sister, Marilyn Broaddus, were constantly in touch with the funeral director and pastor involved as things began to change quickly in the last week.
Ultimately, they were able to have the services close to how they envisioned them, he said. But even the visitation itself was altered by fears of coronavirus spread. Social distancing can be tough at a funeral, Meyer said, as it is typically a time of hugs and physical closeness between friends and loved ones. At Meyer's father's funeral, everyone had to keep their distance.
"It was awkward for everyone to practice social distancing," Meyer said. "It was difficult to not fully embrace (but) we wanted to keep each other safe."
The other issue was simply many peers of his father's are in the vulnerable population and opted not to attend and risk infection.
Meyer said he and his sister had originally planned to stay in Jefferson City a bit longer to clean out their father's room at the nursing home where he stayed. But that facility is now on lockdown, and no nonessential visitors are allowed in, for the safety of other residents.
It's not as if funeral homes can simply close up shop until things improve. All of the area funeral homes said their focus is ensuring as much comfort for grieving families as possible. They advised checking the business websites or calling homes directly to answer any questions or learn more about how they are handling services as things move forward.
It's a new situation for everyone.
"Nobody's written a playbook for this type of pandemic or situation," Ryan Freeman said.
Phil Freeman added in his 50 years in business, "I've never experienced anything like this."
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