Have you attended a Facetime Funeral?

I did for the first time and hopefully my last time today. The world has shifted with new restrictions for public rituals due to the Pandemic. We have all had to adapt to the new norms. One of these rules bans church funerals due to large crowds. Instead, the family can only invite ten people to the gravesite and that includes the minister and the cemetery worker. So that leaves you with only eight family members and friends at the service, but many more on Facetime live. It was raining as we waited in our cars at the cemetery entrance with our face masks on. My mask hid tears for my dear mother who passed away only five days ago at age 91.

My mother had planned a funeral in her church that held 80 people a few years ago when she was deathly ill in the hospital. However, my mom is a trooper and recovered to resume her life again. She flew west to her grandchildren’s weddings and south to her favorite island in the Bahamas. My mom always had a smile on her face with a positive outlook. She continued that way through her final days. She was looking forward to a party in heaven with her husband, relatives, and friends from around the world. 

My mom was high tech with an iPad, iReader Nook, an Apple computer, and a Roku TV. She spent her last days watching her iframe with photos sent by email from around the world. My mom loved holidays and was signing birthday cards to mail during her last weeks. Today, I wore her clothes and jewelry to the funeral. It made me feel closer to her and wish that I could call her afterward to discuss how well the event went. I know that I will continue to miss her every day.

Today was a variation of my mom’s original plans for her funeral service. The minister read from my mom’s Bible and followed her handwritten plans on pieces of paper neatly folded inside. We sang the songs she chose, shared stories of her life, and shed a few tears. Our children and grandchildren listened and watched from around the world on Facetime. Her oldest grandson watched from Skype in China and a video was made of the even to view later. We couldn’t hug each other and face masks hid our sad smiles. We left with farewell waves and no social event afterward. Each of us returned home or turned off our computers with a sigh of farewell with tears in our eyes. The Facetime Funeral was not the way my mom planned it, but turned out to bring us all together in a time of too many goodbyes worldwide. Farewell to Cozette Tweedie Grabb from Ann Arbor, Michigan.