GRAND ISLAND – In a normal month, All Faiths Funeral Home handles about 15 to 20 deaths. In April, All Faiths Funeral Homes handled 42, with 24 deaths being related to COVID-19. Not only did COVID-19 increase the number of deaths for funeral homes, but COVID-19 also changed how funeral homes were conducting their funerals. Large gatherings were either foregone or postponed.

Derek Apfel of Apfel Funeral Home stated that the virus has “not allowed people to have their normal time to have friends involved with their grieving.” Many people can’t get together. Apfel went on to say it’s never a good time to have a loved one die, “but now is just a really, really bad time, because we don’t get that closure that we need to have.” Many families are restricting the funeral to only immediate family and simply live-streaming the service. On the other hand, many are opting for a later date.

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