Elliots Funeral Home director and assistant manager Kylie Sprague. Photo / George Novak
Elliots Funeral Home director and assistant manager Kylie Sprague. Photo / George Novak
Covid-19 has permanently affected the way funerals are run as operators note a spike in live-streaming and a decrease in ceremony sizes.
And there may not be an end in sight with recent alert level changes prompted by new community Covid-19 cases.
According to funeral directors, some families are findingthe financial strains brought on by a death "crippling". Others are having small ceremonies and make plans for a larger memorial at a later date only to abandon those plans.
Hope Family Funeral Services director Tony Hope said funerals were now increasingly more private and intimate as some family members were unable to come into the country.
He said it was common to see loved ones die while family members may still be waiting in managed isolation to see them one more time.
It was also common for funerals to be delayed while waiting for family members to come out of isolation and that continued to put a "huge" emotional strain on families.
Collingwood Funeral Home director Todd Gower said 70 per cent of its funerals were now live-streamed, with the spike seen during the initial Covid-19 lockdown continuing.
Families were now keeping costs down in little ways such as bringing flowers from the garden, making their own PowerPoint and own service sheets.
He said doing these things was a great way for families to begin the grieving process.
"Where we could wait for up to a week for a service, that's no longer happening ... We're no longer waiting for grandkids and other family [members] from overseas."
Elliots Funeral Home director and assistant manager Kylie Sprague said although there were more private family services with a plan to have a memorial at a later date, families hadn't been following through with them a few months down the track.
She believed this was due to families not wanting to revisit their earlier stages of grief.
She said one family planning a memorial decided against it after coming out of the second Auckland lockdown last year.
The live-streams were usually outsourced by suppliers, with some families doing it themselves through Facebook or WhatsApp.
"During Covid, there was a huge increase in live-streaming. Now it's not as much ... it's more recording the service and sending that.
"This is not a large amount and it is very easy for the price to escalate. Funerals are not cheap," she said.
Richard Fullard, of Osbornes Funeral Directors, said pre-paying and planning were becoming increasingly popular.
He said there had been a change in costs from suppliers which they tried to absorb, but they were unable to help when it came to cremation or burials.
Opting for cremations had also been increasing over the past few years, directors said, and this was largely due to cost.
A standard cremation in Tauranga is five-times cheaper than a burial, costing $550 while a plot and burial sat at $3152.
A standard cremation in Rotorua costs $520 while a plot and burial fees will set back loved ones $2711.
Depending on income, assets, cause of death, and relationship to the deceased, grants could be used to help cover costs from ACC and Veterans' Affairs.
A funeral grant of up to $2128.10 is also available through Work and Income.
