The past year has been extremely difficult for everyone, there are thousands of families who have lost loved ones - and coronavirus has changed the way we are able to mourn and arrange funerals.

From restricted numbers attending funerals to PPE, the way funerals are held has had to change drastically over the past year.

At Hillier Funeral Service we have been working hard to ensure families are able to give their loved ones a special send-off. In our 98-year history we have never known anything like this pandemic. It's demanding and it's emotional but we do love the work we do. We have a fantastic team of staff who have been working extra hours in order to ensure every family is supported.

I feel we have been more prepared for this wave of the Covid, in the first wave we felt as though we were scrambling around trying to get PPE to protect our staff. The guidelines at the start were often unclear and we had to change our policies weekly as the pandemic progressed. We now have well documented procedures in place and since July have hygiene screens fitted in all our limousines.

We haven’t wanted to compromise on our level of service and have continued to care for every deceased with dignity and respect, they are not numbers to us, they are someone’s loved one. We have continued age old traditions of shoulder bearing coffins into the crematorium and churches and always use a hearse.

Many of the families wish to see their loved ones in the chapel as they may have been unable to visit and say goodbye before they passed away. We try our best to ensure relatives see their loved ones looking as peaceful as possible.

We see signs of “togetherness” when driving to a funeral and whole neighbourhoods emerge from homes to pay their silent respects.

We have found that families have been very accepting of the restrictions, not wanting to risk infection, and some are even deciding that fewer than 30 people should attend either to be extra cautious or in larger families it’s difficult to pick and choose attendees.

A live streaming service of funerals has been available for those who choose to use it, so people who couldn’t attend can still be part of the funeral.

The majority of our funeral arrangements are made over the telephone or by video call, and it's not the same as speaking face to face, where it's more personal. It's a bit more of a challenge and it can be difficult to build up a rapport. We seem to be spending more time now arranging funerals than before the pandemic as its important to be available to provide reassurance and guidance on the changing restrictions.

Our Bereavement Care Service has continued remotely throughout the pandemic, meaning that anyone struggling with a loss has that extra support available.

e would like to thank everyone for their support, from care and hospital staff to vicars and celebrants to cemetery and crematorium workers and florists. We look forward to the continued roll out of the vaccine in the hope it will see the easing of certain restrictions.