and obviously we put the little Is for infectious,
so it just means to open it with a little more care.
We've got four, eight, 12, 24 ...
Right, first of all, we're gonna get the coffin ready.
One of the things ... we care a lot about infection control anyway.
The measures that we need to consider here are the same ones we would in our personal lives.
The living are much more infectious than the dead.
It's about being cautious of any fluid, it's about being cautious about any air expulsion ...
But we would put a mask over someone who had Covid-19.
We would put them in a body bag,
we take more precautions than we're being advised to take
but at the end of the day, it shouldn't stop us from being able to do our jobs
with gentleness and thought.
This is one of our basic cardboard ones ...
Once you know the technique ... it serves the purpose.
Where we're going for this funeral is a natural burial ground so I think it's perfect for that.
Nothing has really changed as far as our jobs concern.
It's a lot busier.
I think the biggest change is that the actual funeral side around the
graveside or at the crematorium that's the biggest impact when the family can't attend.
They can't touch the coffin ... Little things like that
mean so much to the family and it's when you're asked ... Sorry you can't do that
today and this is the reason why ... that's hard and awkward
because you are there to help people and we're trying to help them as much as we can
with these restraints and things in place.
And I don't want to turn anyone away but I think the public could be very ...
From my experience, the funerals I've done, they understand and, you know, we have had no issues.
Alright, that's done.
We'll just get ready to get the person
into the coffin.
The dead are like a problem now.
Even the language around death care is like disposal, you know, disposal of the body.
Well, this is not a bag of rubbish, you know, this is a person.
This body carried this person through life and they deserve to be treated
with care after they've died.
... we're going to get this gown
And I guess that's one of the reasons why I've been concerned with some of the
things that I've seen happening since Covid-19 came in and I'm thinking
about the impact that has on the people doing the work.
I have huge respect for the PMART teams doing incredibly difficult work,
you know, these are people who are volunteering out of their normal normal roles ...
When you have to use black plastic rather than a white body bag,
when you have to use gaffer tape to kind of keep that plastic together,
when you have to put a bag over someone's head because there aren't enough masks and I was here
the other day when we removed all of that and it felt pretty great
to remove it because you're literally witnessing a kind of infection problem
turn back into this chap who is actually in his pajamas and is now kind of ready
for his funeral.
These acts will be happening in care homes, in people's homes
so I don't like the dead being treated that way,
I don't like the idea of a family or friends or carers seeing that.
Or being told to wait next door because something's about to happen which they probably don't want
to see ... those things are equally as horrible as each other.
I think there's going to be some unnecessary trauma and I think we live
in a world that doesn't even know how to talk about that.
We are just covering him up just to make it nice and safe when we're moving him.
One, two, three slide.
We're just gonna make him comfortable.
It's hard, because obviously ... this gentleman has very shortly hair.
You're just brushing someone's ... but you don't know they had their hairstyle ...
So you just sort of think, well that looks smart, that's nice enough.
And that person then just goes straight into the coffin.
There's a funeral going on just behind us now, not a funeral that we're involved in,
where people have been kind of arriving all morning and I can only
guess that those kind of 40/50 people ...
From our point of view it's hard because we're dealing with families
so you can only have ten people.
And they were here today for a funeral we were organising.
They are going to see it and say why can they have 40 and we can only have ten?
And we are left to try to explain the reasons and, you know, we don't control this cemetery.
I don't really know the answer to that.
I think that's actually really rare so like, do we take that situation ...
It's the same with with all of us out on our daily walks, you know,
someone breaks the rules, does that mean we all should not be allowed to have our daily exercise?
That doesn't seem right.
We've all got to do our bit, you know, that's how these things work out
but it is a problem and it's it's not good for public health, definitely.
Social distancing at funerals can be challenging.
People having to be apart.
Streaming services from crematorium and cemeteries already did exist but now
that's happening a lot.
But there has been some feedback about how powerful and meaningful the funeral has been
despite the restrictions.
It seems dreadful to come to a funeral and not be able to hug people you really love and care about.
It feels so unnatural.
I think it was alright, though, wasn't it?
Yeah, I mean ...
It was fine, it was fine.
There's a responsibility for someone to turn up
in the way, to be able to sort of bear witness to the whole process.
And I think funerals are changing.
And it would be interesting to see how they'll change.
There's certainly less pompous ...
We've all known him for a very long time ...
and his idea was, well, I'm not gonna be there but I would like these things
and and he had no pomposity at all in that way.
He didn't like ceremony, you know, he wouldn't have liked a fuss.
So in fact, the fact there's just a few of us here today,
I think he would just have liked it.
I don't feel as he would feel diminished or demeaned or defined.
No, I don't think so.