Funerals are the Latest Part of America to Move Online

Amidst the current pandemic, the Center for Control and Prevention has urged funeral directors around the country to move funeral services online. So for the immediate future, even for those that did not die of the novel COVID-19 virus, people cannot hold an in-person memorial for their loved ones.

“Being a millennial on the internet, I’ve watched my fair share of livestreamed events, but it was sad for all the wrong reasons,” 27-year-old Garrett Galindo said after having to watch his 82-year-old grandmother’s funeral online. Isabel Cabrera Galindo was a social woman that died of natural causes. “It was sad that my grandmother, a woman known for her love of large gatherings, parties and get-togethers, would have her final service be in front of only 10 of her loved ones. It was sad that even with today’s technology it was so difficult to hear her eulogy, and it was sad knowing we couldn’t share those final moments together as a family.” Many of her older friends could not even attend digitally due to a lack of knowledge of the technology.

With more than 7,000 deaths in the United States each day, many do not want to delay celebrating the lives of loved ones. But the new normal of today of social distancing makes those traditional celebrations impossible. People have criticized livestreamed religious services in the past for being an unsatisfying replica of the in-person experience and some feel the same way about bringing funeral online. Therefore, Funerals are the Latest Part of America to Move Online

See Samantha Murphy Kelly, Funerals are the Latest Part of American Life to Move Online, CNN, March 23, 2020.

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