Grieving and organising funerals is never an easy process, let alone doing it twice during a pandemic.
Sue Jones, of Hamilton, lost both her brother and sister, who lived in Dunedin, at either end of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Her brother died "suddenly" just before Level 4 came into place.
Family from overseas were meant to attend and managed to arrive just hours before the rule for international travellers to go into two weeks’ isolation was brought in.
But because it had been advised those over the age of 70 should not attend, it meant many family and friends missed out.
Instead, they watched a livestream of the service.
"People would ring us and say they want to come to the funeral but I cannot, and we just grieved with them on the phone.
"We would have loved to have a huge funeral, which my brother should have had, but the way it went, we were immensely impressed with people’s responsibility in managing that."
Mrs Jones’ brother had also been the carer for their sister, so when the nation moved into Level 3, she got compassionate transport to travel to Dunedin to look after her.
But her sister took a turn for the worse.
"I got time with her, about three or four days ... I was eternally blessed with that."
Mrs Jones would have to go through the process of planning another funeral under tight restrictions.
But a possible move to Level 2 made her hopeful.
"We believe we will be able to have 100 people with a metre distance [under Level 2].
"What we are going to try to manage is that her church congregation will be invited to a rosary the night before, and then the family and close friends will come to funeral."
She said a morning tea after the funeral would have to be seated with social distancing, but she was not sure the church where they were having the service was big enough.
Mrs Jones said they had to cancel a family reunion, with visitors from throughout New Zealand and England, for the Anzac Day weekend, due to Covid-19.
"We were getting built up and excited about it ... but people have been positive and they realise health is better than anything else that is going on.
"We will take the time to grieve later with everybody and during the next family reunion we have, even if that has to be next year or later on."
She hoped restrictions would ease to Level 2 this week and they could hold a funeral in mid-May.
