After nearly two months of restrictions on the size of public gatherings, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo has relented somewhat for one type of gathering: funerals.
With a slow reopening of businesses now underway, Raimondo on May 8 agreed to relax slightly the size restriction on funeral services – both in houses of worship and in funeral homes – increasing the allowable number of mourners from five to 10.
All other social gatherings remain capped at five people in Rhode Island because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Raimondo said she made an exception for funerals because several faith leaders had spoken to her about their importance, emphasizing the fact that they can’t be rescheduled.
“We felt we had to do something, so we went up to 10,” she said.
Funeral directors say the increase has had a modest impact.
Kim Iannotti, an owner of Iannotti Funeral Home Inc. in Coventry, said the expansion in size has helped grieving families and friends to a degree, but not enough.
“It’s still difficult,” she said. Most people want to have a well-attended service to recognize the person’s life. “You can’t keep putting it off,” she added.
More of the immediate family members can now pay their respects to the deceased, funeral directors noted, but the reality is that memorial services that celebrate a person’s life are still on hold. And out-of-state family members can’t attend because of a quarantine that remains in place.
And even with the eased restrictions, attendees must still stay at least 6 feet apart.
David Nardolillo Sr., an owner of the family-run Nardolillo Funeral Home Inc. in Cranston, said most families are trying to have an immediate funeral, to be followed by memorial Mass or service, and a celebration of the person’s life at a later date.
Raimondo limited all gatherings, including funerals, to five people on March 28 in an attempt to stop the spread of the highly infectious coronavirus.
But the restriction has been particularly painful for people who have had family members die in the past eight weeks, either as a result of COVID-19 or through other causes.
Rhode Island has had more than 400 people die of the disease since March 2. And for many, those deaths followed weeks of isolation from family and friends due to the nature of the disease.
“The person may have been in a nursing home or a hospital, for a month, and the family can’t go see them,” Nardolillo said. “And then they meet me at the cemetery, and it’s like the person vanished two months ago. It’s terrible.”
Funeral directors said they are trying to work through a combination of increased workload and heightened emotion.
Before the pandemic, in a busy month, Nardolillo might handle 30 funeral services between its Cranston and Narragansett locations. This April, the locations had 80 funerals.
If people want an open-casket service, and the person died of COVID-19, the service is held at the business’s Narragansett location. But both locations are having closed-casket services for COVID-19 victims.
Most mourners understand the need for the size restrictions, he said, but Nardolillo is seeing a lot of anger.
“The biggest emotion I’m seeing right now is anger,” he said. “It’s [anger] at the disease and what it’s making them have to do, with the limitations.”
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
