The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our daily interactions. It has been a year now since we've been able to shake hands, hug or share a meal with someone outside our household.

While people across the globe are missing those daily interactions, it's the major life events that have been the hardest to navigate.

Florence Simpson is a Funeral Director, Embalmer and Manager of Cochrane Country Funeral Home, and she says that for people who have lost a loved one over the past year, it's been especially hard to find closure.

"Prior to COVID funerals would take place, the community would be able to come and pay their respects and support the family," says Simpson. "Then COVID hit and a lot of people not knowing what was going to happen said 'we're just going to wait it out and do something later.' It's been a year now and we're still not in a position where that true coming together is really possible."

Simpson says that the direction has changed over the course of the year, and more people are choosing to work within the provincial guidelines at the present, rather than waiting any longer.

As per the provincial health and safety guidelines, funeral services are restricted to a maximum of 20 socially distant people in attendance. Simpson says that has proven to be a challenge.

"You are not able to sit together," says Simpson. "You're asked to refrain from hugging and shaking hands and all the things that are natural."

She says that it not only restricts the broader community from being able to pay their respects and say goodbye but it adds an additional layer of stress for the families who are grieving the loss of a loved one. 

Simpson says that she can relate to the many levels of stress, sadness and overall grief that people are feeling right now,  having lost her own mother during the pandemic.

"There are seven children in our family and at the time the limit was 10," says Simpson. "So which spouses do you think would not be able to be there? Which ones do you pick? No grandchildren, no great-grandchildren. Our family would have had a big coming together celebration of life and funeral to lay my mother to rest. Many families are in the same position."

Simpson says that Cochrane Country Funeral Home has learned to pivot and adapt over the past year. She says they now have technology in place to allow for funeral services to be live-streamed and reach friends and family who can't be there physically. 

In addition to reaching more people virtually, Simpson says that some families chose to have more than one funeral service with different groups in attendance, and often there are people waiting outside so that when someone leaves, another person can enter and have their chance to pay their respects.