Funeral Home Webcast

What would you do if you have to attend the funeral of loved ones in California? You would get yourself a plane ticket, fly there while pausing everything in your life. What can you do if the funeral is within 4 hours since you got the call? It surely is frustrating when you can't do anything.

With the help of high tech on the internet, you can virtually attend the services wherever it takes place. Even though you are not physically in a chapel, it gives a comfort of being part of the service.

Nothing can replace sharing grief togeter by hugging and crying together. This webcast service, however, can connect more people. People who live in a long distance can watch the service far away from home. Distant relatives and friends can still be part of it without feeling the burden of pressure. The elderly people who can't freely move around can also watch the service through one click.

The New York Times article,

When David Grossman’s father, Albert, died at 72 on Aug. 26, some of his out-of-town relatives could not make it to the funeral, which by Jewish custom was held the next day.

Instead they were able to watch the service on a live video broadcast over the Internet via a Webcam hookup at the Star of David Memorial Chapel in West Babylon.

“It was a relief for them,” David Grossman said. “At least they could see something.”

A panoramic camera angle allowed cousins in Arizona, Connecticut and Florida to see the coffin and listen to the rabbi give his eulogy. They could toggle to a view of the pews where their relatives mourned and send electronic condolences to the mortuary Web site.

Kevin Gray, an owner of the funeral home, which opened in May in the midst of Long Island’s cemetery hub along Wellwood Avenue, said that logistics often made it difficult for far-flung next of kin to attend funerals, particularly hastily arranged Jewish services.

“Not everyone can afford to fly as quickly as it takes to get here for a service,” Mr. Gray said, recalling a recent funeral that 50 members of Lider Vera Chica’s family watched from an Internet cafe in Ecuador. Others may be too elderly or infirm to attend.

So far nine families have chosen to use the Webcam at the mortuary, although the burial is not Webcast. The Star of David chapel is the first funeral home in the metropolitan area to be set up specifically to provide the service, said Jo Pettit, the executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk Funeral Directors Association. It is included in the cost of the funeral — $4,500 to $5,000, not including the cemetery or clergy.

(To help fend off intruders, viewers must log on to Mr. Gray’s Web site before they can gain access to the memorial service.)

Robert J. Biggins, the president of the National Funeral Directors Association, called the use of technology during funerals a “burgeoning trend” that allowed people to share memories. Video tributes chronicling the deceased are shown during visitation and memorial services at many funeral parlors, Mr. Biggins said.

Rabbi Jeffrey A. Astrachan of Temple Beth Elohim in Bethpage, who has officiated at funerals at the Star of David chapel, said that the Webcam provided a valuable service but cautioned that it should not “replace coming to a funeral.”

Mr. Gray, who had a Web-based coffin business before becoming a funeral director, said the preference was to wait for out-of-towners to arrive. “You can’t hug someone over the Web,” Mr. Gray said.

For those who cannot watch in real time, and as a keepsake for the family, Mr. Gray provides the family with DVD’s of the funeral at no additional charge.

Rabbi Astrachan said that funerals resembled other cycle-of-life events, like bar mitzvahs and weddings, which are videotaped and later revisited.

“In moments of any extreme emotion, be it grief or joy, sometimes the moments pass and we are not able to moderate our emotion enough to focus on the experience,” he said.

As part of her “Real to Reel” DVD business, Jo-Ann Stokes, a videographer from Mount Sinai, will include, upon request, footage of the receiving line at a funeral home, the eulogy, the procession and the family saying goodbyes to the deceased at the cemetery, along with 40 to 50 photographs taken during the person’s lifetime, all set to music.

“You can hold on to it forever,” Ms. Stokes said.

Funeral DVD’s may ultimately be replayed more often than wedding videos, Mr. Biggins said.

“It may be a very strong tool in the healing process to look back and reminisce about the things that were said about someone you love,” he said.