ISOLATION is fundamental to the strategies to curb the spread of COVID-19 virus and end this pandemic. Strict quarantine orders and prohibitions on visitors at hospitals have left people recovering from the infection, or dying alone, and their families feeling anxious and helpless.
It is during times of difficulties and crisis that we need others most; and similarly we wish that we be with the people we care about. We want to be with our loved ones when they need us most, especially at the last moment of life. Dying: we may be doing it “solo,” but it should not be a solitary event.
Filipinos deeply value funeral services. It’s the last thing that we can do for a beloved, other than continuously praying for their eternal rest. It is the family or community bidding goodbye to a beloved. No wonder, Filipinos take the trouble of coming home, even from outside of the country, when a member of the family dies.
Not being with our loved ones at the time of death or able to say “goodbye” the way we are used to makes dying from the virus (or even of other causes) during this pandemic even lonelier and more difficult.
However, pandemic or no pandemic, death will always be a difficult time for the family. A life plan will somehow help ease this difficult time. The life plan provides what dying during this pandemic succinctly illustrates. A life plan provides funds for dignified memorial services and assistance in facilitating the funeral services. Thus, the family will have time to celebrate the memory of a beloved rather than be worrying about memorial services.
This pandemic has also led to a wider acceptance of cremation as a form of memorial service. Cremation may be currently closely identified with dying from COVID- 19, but more and more people have accepted it as a form of laying their loved ones to rest. It accelerates the transformation of the body without undergoing decomposition, for after all, “we are dust and unto dust we shall return”.
While some already know what they want for memorial services, the preference of others is conditioned by prevailing circumstances at the time of death. Eternal Plans’ life plan, FlexiLife Plan, provides memorial service benefit that may be availed of in the form of the traditional memorial service or cremation service, or both. This flexibility makes FlexiLife the life plan of choice for the new normal.
This pandemic has prevented Filipinos from expressing their love and respect for their beloved departed. And we are not alone. People all over the world are grappling with what it means to die and mourn during this pandemic. We know that this will end. But, whether we are able to return to how it was before or not, a life plan can make death and mourning a lot less difficult.
