Only ten people could attend the memorial service honoring 62-year-old army veteran Jerry Lee Cain, Sr. Cain died after a week or so of fighting complications from the coronavirus. Majority in attendance were his children all wearing masks at a funeral home in Fayette. And in an effort to socially distance, they were required to watch the burial at the Natchez National Cemetery from their vehicles.
Kimar Cain is one of two sons. When his father died in April, he says military burial honors had been suspended because of the pandemic.
“I felt like he was cheated in a way not getting the proper ceremonies,” said Cain.
“Some family members didn’t quite get a chance to say their last goodbyes so that was a pretty gut wrenching feeling as well.”
Safety guidelines for community gatherings have since loosened. Gatherings indoors are now limited to 20 persons if social distancing cannot be assured, and 50 if social distancing can be maintained.
Steve Holland, owner of Holland Funeral Directors in Tupelo, says they’re conducting services in their chapel - which seats up to 350 people. No more than 50 are allowed inside, guests sit rows apart and are required to follow additional safety guidelines.
“You disinfect when you walk in my door,” said Holland.
“You put your mask on. If you don’t have a mask we furnish you one and then you just disinfect before you walk out the door,” he said.
In his almost 50 years in the funeral business, former state representative Holland says he never imagined a time like this.
“It has changed the entire panorama of a funeral,” said Holland. “And it’s not for good.”
“It has made it a much colder affair because nobody can embrace. Nobody can do what us Southerners love to do, which is get up close and personal with you and hug you and that’s just not going on now,” he said.
The state department of health recently traced a cluster of infections back to a funeral in northeast Mississippi where at least nine people tested positive for coronavirus.
