Mourning during Covid

BY LEAH CHIAPPINO

At the height of the coronavirus

pandemic last spring, funeral home workers most intimately bore witness to the nearly 6,500 Long Islanders who lost their lives to Covid-19.

Melissa Schmidt, a director at Oyster Bay Funeral Home, had famililes waiting for three weeks for services after their loved ones had died because of capacity limits at cemeteries. She was unable to embalm all of the deceased that came to her funeral home.

Meanwhile, the third-generation owner of Nolan Funeral Homes in Northport, Mike Nolan, received calls from desperate mouners in New York City unable to find plots to bury their loved ones. He, too, had to turn many away, because there was simply no room. “We never had to do that before,” he said. Nolan said he saw demand for services increase by nearly 50 percent from March 15 to May 13, 2020. John J. Glynn, a funeral director at Thomas A. Glynn and Son funeral home in Rockville Centre, said he normally arranges fewer than 10 funerals a month, but in April 2020, he arranged almost 50. Schmidt went from 10 funerals a month to more than 60, she said.

“I had one woman tell me At the height of the pan demic, funerals were lim ‘I dropped my husband off ited to 10 people or less, mainly consisting of imat the hospital two weeks mediate family. ago and I’m going to get “The best way to dehis ashes back.’” scribe it is we used to be a public building, and - Melissa Schmidt we became a private building,” Nolan said. Schmidt added this was especially traumatic for people who were unable to see their loved ones who unexpectedly died from Covid-19 in the hospital. “I had one woman tell me, ‘I dropped my husband off at

Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino - Unsplash

the hospital two weeks ago, and I'm going to get his ashes back,’” she said. After such a tumultuous year, funeral home directors said they look forward to the return to normalacy. Until then, services are kept to a limited number of people, and it is unclear when they will go back to normal capacity as permitted during pre-Covid times. Because Nolan's Funeral Home does not have separate entrances and exits, viewing is still limited to one family at a time, and services are kept to half capacity, at 75 people. “People still have a sense of nervousness,” Glynn said. “They usually pay their respects and leave, whereas they used to stay for a while.”

Nolan has also observed the continued sense of unease among many families. “It all depends on the family,” he said. “ Some may have an elderly parent, and your uncle, and they want to keep it small, so in which case we keep it private, and some people want to have a larger gathering, in which case some people have to wait outside. It's all what they're comfortable with.”