OneRoom Blog

As COVID-19 cases spread across the nation, disrupting daily routines for the living, growing numbers of U.S. businesses and families are changing how they deal with the dead.

THE LOSS OF A LOVED ONE can be difficult to deal with at any time. But in the era of COVID-19, when physical, or social, distancing is the norm, family and friends wanting to pay their last respects to the deceased face special challenges.

When Candida Rifkind got the call on March 14 that her Aunt Cecilia had died, she realized she couldn’t attend the funeral. The rapid spread of the coronavirus was making international travel more uncertain than ever. Just a day earlier, the United States had blocked most European visitors from entering its borders. Ms. Rifkind, an English professor who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, didn’t want to risk it. (Canada and the United States closed their borders to each other the next week.)

The coronavirus has forced public gatherings to be banned so no crowds at the footy, no weddings, conventions, concerts and other events. But what about a funeral? They can’t be postponed but the good news you can still pay your respects without being there in person.

Grace Druien is “kind of a professional funeral-thrower.”

In a move away from tradition, more and more people are choosing cremation. Last year the cremation rate was predicted to have reached 53.5 percent, with a forward prediction that the national cremation rate will reach 80% by 2035.

If you died tomorrow, how many people would feel compelled to travel for your funeral, and how far would they have to come? It’s now fairly commonplace to leave your hometown and move across the country or abroad, at least for a while, and to find your loved ones scattered across thousands of kilometres.

The service isn't meant to replace a traditional funeral. Instead it provides the opportunity for those that can't make it in person to attend explains David Lutterman with OneRoom Funeral Streaming.

Thanks to the social networks, the world is smaller.Thanks to the social networks, we are able to socialise our own grief with loved ones, as one.

Since the mid-20th century, TV has been a staple source of entertainment and news in households around the world – from Saturday night movies for the kids, to dad telling everyone to hush while he catches the weather report.

The call came on January 2. It was early enough in the morning that Natalie Levy probably shouldn’t have been awake—she had recently left a high-stress job at a private-equity firm in San Francisco, and was determined to relax a bit—but her dog had woken her up.

We gave OneRoom CEO David Lutterman a little longer than an elevator ride to pitch his company, which is shaking up the traditional funeral industry with its live stream technology and slick branding.