Hugging is Back in Style

There is power behind receiving an embrace in the midst of a stressful and heartbroken moment. You don’t feel alone…

For the last 15 months, whether grief struck your life or not, we all felt alone at one point or another. The norm throughout the pandemic has been isolating ourselves, covering faces, avoiding human contact and social distancing 6 feet apart. 

As a funeral director, being in a business of compassion and care, and not being able to show support with a hug has been heart breaking. But, the most heart wrenching thing we experienced was having to watch grieving families be separated by screens, red tape, or personal protective equipment, better known as PPE. 

Thankfully, the rainbow after this tragic storm has finally appeared! New York State, we are cleared to go back to normal! Instead of a list of mandates and regulations, I am happy to simply say that masks are not mandated in our funeral home. We only highly recommend wearing facial protection if you are not vaccinated, and if the family we are serving requests us to wear masks we shall.

Glenville Funeral Home is running at 100% capacity with our large indoor and outdoor facility. We’ve been honored to hold many large services since the mandates have been lifted. Seeing people come together for the first time in large groups without masks and embrace has been beautiful to watch. 
Our mission to maintain a COVID free facility continues with hand sanitizer stations, ventilation air system and the use of COVID disinfectants. It goes without saying that COVID has certainly created a new norm of cleanliness, the only good thing to come out of the pandemic. 

Currently, we are helping families from last year and earlier this year arrange funeral services that were post pone due to pandemic restrictions. We hope to bring closure and peace to these families who had to burden the additional sorrow of not coming together with loved ones.  Webcasting and zoom is convenient, but it will never replace REAL human interaction. 

As our community moves forward in this shared renewal of normal life we must reflect on what we all went through and the people we lost. Life is so unpredictable. All we can do now is hope [pray] this time in history was a learning experience and be grateful for the future, because as we know all too well, tomorrow is never promised.  

For the last 100 years, our family has served the community through their darkest days. Nothing, not even a pandemic, can keep us from providing the most dedicated care and service loved ones need and deserve when someone passes. We stand readily to be there for you when you need us.