How do you pay a final tribute when you can't leave your home? While France has been confined for four weeks, thousands of people are living in mourning alone, unable to go to the funeral of their missing loved one. During this period of coronavirus epidemic, the rules are strict: a maximum of 20 people from the family circle are only allowed to attend the burial. For the past month, the crematoriums have also prohibited their access to the public. When the deceased died of the coronavirus, the family was also not allowed to attend the brewing. All these restrictions have prompted businesses, associations, cults and town halls to set up all kinds of initiatives to help the bereaved French.
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Several digital platforms offer in particular to broadcast funerals online, in order to allow a slightly larger circle of relatives to pay the deceased a final tribute. "All you need is a smartphone to attend the funeral," explains Philippe Meyralbe, co-founder of AdVitam, at the microphone of Europe 1. This funeral director offers families to broadcast a ceremony live on its website. Internet. Since the start of containment, she has made this service free.
Platforms and listening numbers for isolated people
Meeting up with friends, sharing your grief with others, talking about the deceased: these are important steps to mourn, which confinement also undermines. After the ceremony, how can we provide assistance to isolated people who have no loved one to embrace or to whom to confide? "We try to accompany people as long as it takes, while waiting to be able to meet," said Father Thierry Magnin, secretary general and spokesperson for the Conference of Bishops of France. The latter has set up a national toll-free number for isolated people. A team of listeners (priests, deacons, religious and laity) can be reached on 0 806 700 722, Monday to Sunday from 8h to 22h for the duration of confinement.
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Florence Bardon, president of the Info Funéraire Dijon association, also has the idea of helping isolated people. Via Facebook, it provides groups of grieving families with bereaved people, where they can discuss and find comfort. "Psychologists and sophrologists also work there on a voluntary basis," she said. Another solution is that of Damien Boyer, founder of "Mieux traverser le deuil", a platform that mobilizes 800 people ready to listen to the bereaved. "When you are alone in the face of mourning, rediscovering human warmth is good," he observed at the microphone of Europe 1.
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Share memories
Other initiatives also aim to bring to life the memory of missing persons, by allowing all those close to them to share their memories, even when they are confined to miles from each other. Pauline Ronez, founded Une Rose Blanche following the death of one of her friends. "When I visited her parents, I realized that what helped them the most was that we kept talking about their daughter," she says. Thanks to an online guest book, friends and family of the deceased can share photos, memories and anecdotes, visible to all contributors. A way to feel less lonely in grief and grief.