JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In times of grief, funerals oftentimes attract dozens if not hundreds of people, but under the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions’ guidelines for COVID-19, large gatherings of people are not permitted.
With this in mind, a Jacksonville funeral home is launching an online funeral service that also addresses families’ need for privacy.
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The Evergreen Cemetery, Funeral Home and Crematorium is offering to videotape funerals and give loved ones a chance to say their final goodbyes from home. All they need to do is log in to Evergreen’s website
”It’s not livestreaming. We are real cautious about this and how we do it with the families. It’s all professionally done. (It) sounds great. It looks great. But we record it, and within an hour of the service, we will upload it to our website. The family gets a link to that page or website and there’s also a password," said Michael Ondina, with Evergreen.
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The funeral service is either videotaped in the chapel or even at the graveside. Then, the family decides who they want to share the video link of the service with. The video stays on Evergreen’s website for up to a year, giving saddened families the option of at least be a part of the special service.
“This is probably something we are going to want to continue on after we’ve gotten out of the situation and continue to do this for our families to serve them better,” Ondina said.
The online video service runs $395.