Hard year for funeral homes, grieving families
Downtown association plans winter workshop; new salon opens on Pelham Road
There are a lot of images from 2020 that George Darte will never forget, though he might like to.
There were times at his St. Catharines funeral home when mourning family members couldn’t hug, thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.
Sometimes they couldn’t lay their hand on the loved one they had lost — for safety reasons, a person who touched their heart in life was off limits in death. And by law, fewer people were allowed to attend services.
“A number of our families couldn’t even see their dying loved one in nursing home or in hospital, so they never got to physically say their farewells to that person,” says Darte.
He adds, “there was a time where if you wanted to come and pay your respects to someone who died, you had to phone us, make an appointment.
“You’d wait in your car — you cannot get out of your car, you cannot be alone in the parking lot — then at your appointed time we would come out and get you and bring you into the funeral home.”
Rules have been relaxed since, but some restrictions remain.
Darte, who operates George Darte Funeral Home on Carlton Street in St. Catharines, recalls one funeral in the spring. A 26-year-old man, first name Lucas, died in a car crash.
“Lucas’s mom has nine brothers and sisters, they’re all married. And his dad has a couple of sisters, married,” says Darte.
“Plus you have a whole bunch of cousins” and friends. “The family wanted to have a ceremony, they were a Catholic family.
“They wanted to go to the church. Well, churches, mosques and synagogues were all closed at the time. So poor Lucas, at 26 years of age — we could have nine people plus the priest come to the funeral home.”
The rest stayed elsewhere and watched it on livestream.
That’s “a good example of a sad example,” says Darte.
In 2020, funeral homes have been hurt economically by COVID-19 the same way stores and hotels and restaurants have.
Fewer people are visiting, ceremonies are smaller, rooms are rented less often and costs have gone up for safety materials.
Darte hasn’t added staff, but the 33 people he employs are busier doing things like monitoring ceremonies to ensure safe distancing and greeting visitors to take information for contact tracing and doing temperature checks.
“We would probably — and I would dare say a lot of other funeral homes too — we are probably down closer to 15 per cent, maybe even 18 per cent in revenue.
“That sounds like a lot of money, but when I look at our friends that own hotels and restaurants, travel businesses, they are down probably 90 to 95 per cent.
“So I guess we can say we’re lucky compared to the others.”
Recently, the Bereavement Authority of Ontario, an arm of the provincial government that regulates the funeral industry, waived licence renewal fees for a year.
“The BAO’s licensees have shown leadership in continuing to provide uninterrupted professional, safe and caring services to families across the province during COVID-19 pandemic measures,” said the agency’s chief executive officer Carey Smith.
That included months of reduced services “and 24/7 readiness … to avoid potential stockpiling of bodies, which occurred in several countries,” he added.
It was welcome recognition for what his industry has gone through, Darte says.
“I know most people don’t understand our world … but we do know what we do, and we have had a number of our families thank us as well,” he says.
Regarding his staff, “they hide it well if they have had more stress.
“I believe the mentality of our staff is that we need to help the families … they are very, very caring for the person that died and for the family members as well.”
He has talked with funeral home operators in the U.S., which has 11 times the population of Canada, but 23 times more COVID deaths.
“One of my friends, he’s in New Jersey … and another one in New York, they said after the first couple of days they had to turn their phones off. They were getting one death call every hour.
“He said, ‘we would probably do about 30 to 40 funerals a month but we’re getting about 24 death calls in a day. They referred them to other funeral homes, they were all swamped.”
Winter Workshop brings Christmas feeling downtown
It doesn’t take a green thumb to design an attractive Christmas floral arrangement.
The St. Catharines Downtown Association is offering all the help anyone needs, at a Winter Workshop planned for Nov. 20 at Market Square on King Street.
Presented by the Watering Can Flower Market, participants can design their own arrangement in an embossed tin container, using Christmas foliage of cedar, silver fir, pine and decorated with pinecones, curly willow or sparking Christmas balls.
The event, with safe social distancing, starts at 6 p.m. Reservations are required, but instead of individual seats organizers are selling tables to accommodate up to four people each.
Tickets for a table cost $52.74. After that, the purchaser can add up to three more people to complete the table. Tickets can be purchased online at MyDowntown.ca and search Featured Events.
For more information visit the downtown association’s website MyDowntown. ca and search Events.
New salon opens on Pelham Road
In St. Catharines, Q1 Nails and Spa opened recently at 24 Pelham Rd. at Hamilton Street.
It offers a wide range of services— nails, waxing, facials, pedicures and manicures as well as services for children.
A grand opening was held recently, and more information on the business is online at q1nailsandspa. com. Their phone number is 289-7868066.