Changes to funeral industry here to stay
Pandemic created opportunities for livestreaming, virtual eulogies, ‘sharing circles’
In the aftermath of her father’s death in 2018, Effie Anolik searched far-and-wide for just the right memorial service to honour him.
It was an arduous process, she remembers, only adding to the grief she was already experiencing. Researching funeral homes with exorbitant rates and complicated websites only made things worse.
“Losing a loved one is one of the worst things you’ll ever go through, so it’s the least-optimal time to have to navigate that process,” she said.
In the end, however, the experience reshaped Anolik’s career.
In 2018, she founded Afterword, a virtual funeral planning service initially designed to help people navigate the maze of after-death arrangements. Two years later, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she found herself in the middle of a transformation across the funeral service industry.
Once a business-to-business operation, Afterword shifted gears to work directly with consumers, many of whom were requesting virtual memorial services in lieu of in-person arrangements. Anolik built a website from
scratch and gathered cameras and livestreaming production software, allowing clients to attend services from the comfort of their homes.
The company offers packages, starting at $795 (U.S.), for inperson and virtual memorials that cover livestreaming, eulogies, audio-visual elements and a “sharing circle” at the end allowing attendees to share their fondest memories of those who died.
Anolik says the startup is operating at a scale comparable to some of Ontario’s largest funeral homes.
“The number of families seeking our services is growing rapidly month over month,” she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people mourn. Whereas friends and family once congregated in places of worship to pay their respects, limits on gatherings and travel restrictions have kept them apart. Plenty of those who seek these services are loved ones of a COVID-19 victim — only adding to the urgency to stay home.
But long after COVID-19 is gone, funeral home providers say the changes are here to stay.
Rick Cowan, a senior manager at the Mount Pleasant Group, says the funeral service provider began offering online services several years before pandemic. The idea was to cater to the diverse population of the GTA, many of whom might have family in countries around the world who would tune in to a service from afar.
It didn’t really catch on until the pandemic, Cowan says. But it gave the company an edge when they needed to transition to online offerings.
“The moment the pandemic hit, we started hearing from individuals who wanted to hold memorials online. So we started seeing that service grow, and it has continued to build ever since,” Cowan said.
Online services have their share of difficulties, of course. Attendants are unable to comfort their friends and family from a distance. Technical difficulties can pause proceedings or mute speakers.
Scott MacCoubrey, president of MacCoubrey Funeral Homes, says he quickly learned not to pan to the in-person crowd — usually of seven or eight people — while livestreaming services.
“It’s terrible when you only see a small handful of people in the crowd commemorating a loved one. People don’t like to see that,” he said. “It was a painful learning curve at first, but we eventually figured it out.”
He expects livestreaming will continue post-pandemic.