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The ICCM Journal | Autumn 2021 | V89 No. 3
president's page Hello again everyone I hope you are all keeping well and continuing to stay safe whilst enjoying this mini heatwave. The 19th July arrived ……. “Freedom Day” as it is being called, when we saw the remaining coronavirus restrictions eased across England. Both Wales and Scotland have their own rules and it is important to remember that when visiting other parts of Great Britain, we follow the current guidance that applies there. So what does that mean for funerals; bearing again in mind that Scotland has its own regulations, the government website tells us we will not need to stay 2 metres apart, venues are not required to follow social distancing rules, although ….. “keeping your distance and limiting close contact can help reduce the risk of catching or passing on COVID-19” Then again ….. people who are self-isolating or who are in quarantine following international travel may be present at a funeral and it is therefore recommended those people should remain 2 metres apart ….. I do hope you are all keeping up!!!
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There are no legal limits on the number of people who can attend funerals or commemorative events. ‘Venue operators’ may choose to set their own limits, and I am sure up and down the country, we will see that each crematorium or cemetery will have completely differing restrictions depending on the size of their venue. This could possibly result in complaints, with “they allow x number of people, why can’t you?”, however we need to ensure the safety of our staff as well as the visitors. At Southampton in our East Chapel, we had removed a lot of our seating and used occasional tables to make it look less ‘empty’, it received so many compliments that we have continued with this layout, which fortunately for us, is large enough to accommodate more chairs and tables, let’s just hope we are not taking them out again with any further waves! Numbers of deaths are still not stable, and we all need to ensure that we continue to stay safe, the immunisation programme in place is being extended to children under 18. A further change to the current contact tracing rules was announced by Sajid Javid, Health Secretary in the House of Commons, to start from 16th August. Fully vaccinated close contacts of positive cases will not have to isolate “to manage the virus in a way that is proportionate to the pandemic, while maintaining the freedoms that are so important to us all”. However, he did advise to take a PCR test as soon as possible “so they can get certainty about their condition”. You will still be required to isolate regardless of whether you have had a vaccine or not if you test positive. The pandemic has restricted movement around the country, but I am happy to say that on the 29th July, myself and Julie will be attending the re-opening of Greenacres Heatherley Wood, long story but it will be our second visit there this month. In my next journal page, I will share how it went and include photos. It will be lovely to have some good news to share with you all and to have been out and about, I am really looking forward to it. The webinars continue to be extremely popular, they have given members, even in the remoter destinations, the opportunity to be able to participate in discussions around topics such as natural burial, dementia and questions and answers on exhumation and exclusive rights of burial to name but a few; all subjects which are relevant to many of us in the industry. On a personal note, on the 9th June we reached the end of our ‘year of firsts’ when we said goodbye to our gorgeous grandson Harlee. What do you do to commemorate this, especially during a pandemic, we decided to have a beautiful Dove release at his graveside, and I sent this poem to my daughter Fern, as I felt it would be something that Harlee would want to say to her. I hope you don’t mind me sharing, as I am sure it will also mean something to many of you:-
