By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Funeral Directors Association’s (BFDA) president says any measures that restore the industry to “normalcy” will be well received following a year of COVID-19 restrictions.

Kirsch Ferguson told Tribune Business he hopes further easing can occur in a “quicker fashion” after the government last week announced up to 40 persons, not including the officiant and mortuary workers, can now attend a graveside service or internment on all Bahamian islands.

The move doubles the number of family members and friends who can attend graveside funerals, which had previously been capped at 20 under the government’s COVID-19 emergency powers. Church funerals and repasts at private residences are capped at 20 persons, while services at funeral homes and chapels remain prohibited.

Mr Ferguson said: “I just hope that despite the pandemic we get back to normalcy sooner rather than later, so families can find some comfort to some extent.” As to when funeral home and chapel services will resume, he added: “I can’t speak to that specifically, because I think that’s totally up to the competent authority. I know some forward movement has been made towards that with the Christian Council.”

Mr Ferguson also sought to clear up what he branded “a grave miscommunication”, confirming that no family had left a loved one’s body in the morgue “for an inexcusable amount of time” while they waited for COVID-19 funeral restrictions to ease.

“Circumstances warrant that to happen at times, but families have been very forceful at making sure that their loved ones are properly tended to by funeral directors,” Mr Ferguson said. “So only under circumstances where they have no control have the bodies has remained in the morgue.

“But the funeral homes straight across the board have been very diligent in ensuring that they move in a timely fashion, working quite nicely with the staff at the morgue at Princess Margaret Hospital, as well as with the coroner’s office.”

Mr Ferguson said the latest restrictions easing is unlikely to cause persons to order more funeral programmes or extra limousine services as this has always been “dictated by the family”.

He added: “So even in this pandemic, even though a family chooses to offer 100 programmes, families are more conscientious now that a lot of persons cannot attend and a lot of people can’t travel. But they are still ordering above and beyond that amount to facilitate some form of memorialisation for those who are unable to attend or travel to The Bahamas.”