While social distancing measures and lockdowns are in place across the US due to novel coronavirus, a funeral home in San Antonio has started a new service to make sure that people can bid a proper farewell to their loved ones.
Mission Park Funeral Chapels and Cemeteries has become the world’s first funeral theater to provide the facility of drive-in funeral services. The first one of these unique services was offered outside the chapel last Tuesday.
Coronavirus has claimed 25,603 lives in the US so far and the total number of confirmed cases has crossed 600,000.
Providing an innovative solution as required by these trying times, the drive-in funeral theater of Mission Park allows family and friends to bid a proper farewell to their loved ones while maintaining the measures of social distancing and avoiding the chance of getting the deadly virus.
The new service allows mourners to drive to a window from where they can see the casket or urn of the departed person. Next up, there is a microphone stand where the grieving family and friends can drive to and leave a spoken message for others attending the funeral.
Every step can be completed without having to step out of the car.
At the end of the ceremony, the mourning guests honk their horns three times as a symbol of comfort and love, before driving away.
The whole thing is streamed live so that people can watch the ceremony from the comfort of their homes if they can’t take part in it physically.
Virtual guests are given the chance to sign guestbooks digitally, leave condolence messages and offer virtual hugs for the grieving family.
Dick Tips, the CEO of Mission Park Funeral Chapels and Cemeteries, said in the inauguration announcement of the service that “it’s absolutely free of charge.”
“Our families are hurting right now, and we want to make it as easy as possible on them. The best way we could do that was to be able to stream their services,” he said.
Even though people are dying at a high rate due to the ongoing pandemic, it is never easy to bid farewell to someone you love, “but to tell somebody they can’t come, that’s even worse,” Tips said.
Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, and the administration of San Antonio city have said that funerals are exempted from the 10-person limit but funeral providers are instructed to make sure the social distancing measures are observed as directed by the CDC.
Tips added: “It’s probably new for everybody. We’ve redesigned our facilities to accommodate for this in short order.
“We have to make adjustments and we have to make them fast. To make it easier for every family in San Antonio to be a part of the ones they love.”
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