ALPENA — Federal money may ease the financial burden after someone dies after infection with COVID-19, but the emotional cost of such death is beyond compensation, local funeral directors say.

SInce April 12, people who paid for COVID-19-related funeral expenses after January 20, 2020 can apply for reimbursement of up to $9,000 — covering the cost of caskets, vaults, headstones, death certificates, travel, and more — from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The FEMA reimbursements can’t make up for the emotional toll of losing a loved one to COVID-19, but the money is a positive step, Alpena funeral directors agree.

“Hopefully, it will be able to restore these people back to somewhat where they were,” said Alex Hunter, director and owner of Karpus-Hunter Funeral Home in Alpena. “Maybe it doesn’t (relieve) the emotional burden, but maybe a little bit of the financial burden.”

As of Thursday, 127 Northeast Michiganders have died after being infected with the coronavirus, according to the state.

COVID-19 deaths didn’t mean more requests for funeral home services than usual in Alpena, directors report.

Families needing those services, however, came to funeral homes reeling not only from their emotional loss, but also from economic stresses wrought by the coronavirus.

Quarantine restrictions kept families home when their loved one became ill, leading to lost wages — a loss compounded if someone in the household caught the highly contagious virus.

Sometimes multiple people from a family were struck by the virus and died, doubling the financial burden.

In any given year, about 60% of people needing funeral home services don’t have life insurance policies to help with costs, according to Jeff Faircloth, funeral director at McWilliams Funeral Home in Alpena.

In 2020, even more people who came to his business had to make funeral decisions based on cost, choosing a casket they didn’t want or drastically scaling back visitations and funeral services because they couldn’t afford more.

If people came to him with nothing, unable to pay for a dignified farewell to their loved one, he couldn’t turn them away, Faircloth said.

The promised FEMA money is only offered to families who paid for funeral expenses, so funerals for which his business covered expenses out of compassion probably won’t be eligible for reimbursement.

Nor will the $20,000 in COVID-19-related expenses Chad Esch, funeral director at Bannan Funeral Home in Alpena, incurred in the purchase of personal protective equipment, plexiglass barriers, and an outdoor tent and patio heaters to allow more family members to gather.

For much of 2020 and still this week, funeral homes faced a 25-person cap on services and visitations. Some families exceed that number with family members alone, Esch said.

In the past year, he witnessed children not hugging a parent as the other parent died. Siblings not comforting each other. Grandkids afraid to get too close to Grandma for fear of putting her at risk of catching the virus.

“It’s excruciatingly painful,” Esch said, agreeing with other funeral directors that 2020 was a gruelling year in their industry.

Some families who postponed funerals during 2020 because of restrictions have decided to not have a service at all, fearful of opening old wounds, Esch said.

Funerals which would normally attract 200 or 300 members of the community were attended by only 50.

On Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted some COVID-19 restrictions beginning June 1, allowing, among other things, funeral homes to operate at 50% capacity. At McWilliams Funeral Home, that means about 100 people can now wrap the comfort of their presence around a grieving family.

They’re not supposed to wrap their arms around the family, according to Whitmer’s orders, which still suggest people stay more than a hug’s distance away from each other, according to Faircloth.

“Am I stopping anybody?” Faircloth said. “No. But technically …”

Families who lost more than one loved one to COVID-19 can apply for up to $35,500 from FEMA. Death certificates must indicate a death “may have been caused by” or “was likely the result of” COVID-19 or coronavirus-like symptoms.

Reimbursement hinges on the family’s ability to prove they paid for funeral expenses, but the application process isn’t complicated, and funeral homes are willing to help with paperwork, local funeral directors said.

The government has promised the funding has no application deadline.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.