When a crisis comes upon you – you have a choice.  You can shudder in a corner or you can face it and do all you can to be part of the solution.  I believe that funeral professionals and funeral business suppliers are those that want to be part of the solution.

In that vein we bring you this news video and article from KTAB Television in Abilene, Texas, about what pre-need funeral insurance and death care solutions company Funeral Directors Life Insurance (FDLIC) is doing for our nation’s funeral homes.

According to FDLIC’s CEO Kris Seale, the company has been developing a virtual software package for the last couple of years which allows families to make remote funeral arrangements with funeral homes.

While it is not mentioned in the article how FDLIC had planned to roll out the product, the company has now made the decision to offer it free of charge to any funeral home in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.  “We’re offering it to the entire funeral profession throughout the United States for free so that they can take care of families in the best possible way,” says Seale.

Funeral director Teresa Doyal of Elliot Hamil Funeral Homes and Cemetery is quoted, “. . . .I mean, I think back two years ago the virtual environment was nonexistent. What do you do? Thank goodness we have that now.”

According to CEO Seale, since they’ve started offering their software for free, more than 70 funeral homes across the nation have added the service.

Here is the FDLIC website.

Funeral Director Daily take:  It’s good to see things like this happening.  I’m guessing that this is a proprietary item that FDLIC had different plans for a roll-out with.  However, it appears that it is a different option than Zoom meetings and something that some funeral homes will take advantage of.

More news from the Death Care world:

• With most services banned, funeral directors struggle to handle bodies, comfort mourners. . The Chicago Tribune
• I followed New York City death care workers as they collected bodies. . . . Business Insider
• Idaho opens first national cemetery for veterans.  KVTB 7
• How families are virtually mourning during coronavirus.  Brooklyn Daily Eagle
• Overwhelmed, Italians choose cremation over burial.  The Observer
• Spring Grove Cemetery closes to all non-essential visitors.  WLWT 5 – Cincinnati
• University of Minnesota researchers find key – and vulnerable features – of novel coronavirus. University of Minnesota
• China researchers isolated bat virus near Wuhan animal market.  Washington Times.

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