COVID-19 Forcing Funeral Homes to Take Drastic Actions as Stunned Families Grieve in Isolation
Funeral director Paddy Lynch describes funerals limited to ten people or fewer during COVID-19, why embalming often wasn't happening, rising volume, and shortages of protective equipment.
About This Episode
As COVID-19 claims the lives of many of the elderly in Michigan and around the world, funeral homes are being forced to put new rules in place to appropriately respond to the crisis. Paddy Lynch, third generation owner of Lynch & Sons Funeral Directors, recently joined Mike and Kevin to give an exclusive look into what funeral homes and the families of the recently deceased are experiencing with COVID-19 guidelines in place. Lynch also shares his thoughts on pre-paid vs pre-planned funerals and talks about his family’s crazy connection to the show Six Feet Under!
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Show Notes
- Introducing today’s guest Paddy Lynch
- What is happening right now in the funeral system?
- Things are changing on a daily basis
- Ten people or less in funeral home to say their quick goodbyes
- Our whole lives have been devoted to creating ceremonies to help people through their grief, “It’s heartbreaking”
- “Joy shared is joy increased and grief shared is grief diminished”
- We’re seeing a lot of fatalities in Detroit
- Small and large funeral firms have different challenges
- We’re understaffed and busier than ever
- Metro Detroit is lucky to have so many family-owned funeral homes who are handling this beautifully
- Are cemeteries running out of space in New York?
- With the volume, embalming all of these bodies and keeping them in facilities id difficult
- You can only cremate so many people individually in a day
- “Most Jewish folks are not embalmed”
- Some funeral homes have stopped embalming
- How do you protect your workers during the pandemic?
- “It can certainly live in the lungs of someone who has died from COVID”
- “The most dignified and decent thing to do is to get these people buried and cremated relatively quickly”
- “We’re definitely on the frontlines”
- What is the percentage increase of deaths we are seeing in Michigan?
- Families can no longer visit, and elderly loved ones are more susceptible to death
- Cremation and burial have different standards in the courts
- Are you seeing more people wanting preplanned or prefunded funerals?
- “Six Feet Under” and the Lynch family
- How does the culture think about dead bodies?
- “The presence of the dead is really critical to the health of a society”
- The dead don’t care, but the dead matter
- Concluding remarks
FAQs
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How many people were allowed at funerals during the COVID-19 shutdown, according to Paddy Lynch?
Lynch said funeral homes had been brought down to ten people or fewer, basically to say a very brief goodbye or hold a brief religious ceremony. Until recently, he said, 50 had been ‘sort of the number going around.’
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Were people being embalmed during the pandemic?
Lynch guessed that most people dying at the time, whether of COVID-19 or not, were not being embalmed, but buried or cremated relatively quickly, as Jewish people have done for generations. He said embalming isn’t necessary when burial or cremation happens quickly, and that some funeral homes had decided no one would be embalmed since there were no public gatherings.
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Did Lynch & Sons see an increase in funeral volume during the pandemic?
Yes. Lynch said he had seen at least a 20% increase in volume at his location, and that in the city of Detroit some firms would say they had doubled.
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What's the difference between pre-planning and pre-funding a funeral, according to Paddy Lynch?
Lynch said some corporations that bought up family-owned funeral homes hired commission-based sales forces to tell older people that pre-arranging means pre-funding, which his family believes has been disastrous. His family has always been willing to facilitate conversations about people’s plans, but tells people it’s very often not financially advantageous to pay the undertaker ahead of time, since the money has to go into a third-party trust or escrow anyway.
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Was Lynch & Sons facing shortages of protective equipment during the pandemic?
Lynch said there are definitely shortages, and that doctors and nurses should have access first. His firm was okay because its volume hadn’t gotten out of control and it was fairly well prepared, but he knew of funeral directors who had to reuse a mask ten times or, without an N95, wrap a homemade mask around their face.
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