Saying goodbye to a loved one or friend is never an easy time. With gatherings of any kind being limited in size due to the coronavirus, an added stress has been placed on families planning funerals.

The Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association has asked funeral homes to abide by the recommendation of state and federal officials in putting a cap on the number of people who attend an interment or memorial service until the threat of the virus passes.

“We’re seeing people now have very small private interments, 10 people or less in attendance, and many memorial services are being postponed until we get a return to normalcy,” said Bruce Nalesnik, who runs a funeral home in Nesquehoning. “We’re trying to follow the guidelines put out by our state association. It poses a challenge for many families, but they’ve been receptive to having the private interments with a much smaller group than they might normally have.”

Within the last week, David Peake Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, released a statement regarding how things should proceed for those in the industry.

“As licensed funeral directors, we provide comfort and care to families and their friends, when a loved one dies,” he said. “During this time, all funeral homes will be operating on our normal 24-hour, 7-days-a-week schedule to ensure that there is no interruption of service to families, regardless of the cause of death. Recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control about restricting the size of gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our tradition of gathering extended family and friends around us to provide comfort and share our loss during funeral services.”

Tom Parambo, owner of a funeral home in Summit Hill, said much like schools and restaurants, the changes to interments came overnight.

“This has come about rapidly,” Parambo said. “We had a large funeral, we were able to do that and then the next day it completely changed. We’re now limited to a certain amount of people at the private ceremony. The churches are really dictating that.”

Like Nalesnik, Parambo said families have been understanding of having to limit large gatherings.

“For a traditional burial, if we were to postpone that, we would have to apply to the state for an extension of the 10-day period, but we haven’t into that,” Parambo said. “We have a small private service coming up this Saturday.”

When it comes to memorial services, Nalesnik said, they could usually easily be pushed to later in the year when things are hopefully under control.

“We just had a memorial service that was postponed to a later date,” he said. “The memorial services are pretty flexible, but your traditional burial with a casket, that almost has to be held, just with a smaller gathering. In the extreme north they can hold interments until the spring, but we don’t have that option here.”

The state association is reminding people that although private interments will go on with small gatherings, anyone with symptoms of fever, cough or any of the other symptoms of COVID-19 refrain from attending.

“Our sympathies go out to anyone who has experienced a loss, and now has the burden of grief during this uncertain time,” Peake said.

“We are encouraging families to talk with their funeral directors about creating a meaningful service that honors their loved one and meets the social distancing recommendations set forth by government officials.”