The impact Coronavirus is having on funerals - even for those who didn't die from it

The virus is having a major impact on our everyday lives - but it's also affecting the way we handle death.

One family invited us along as they laid their beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather James Bowen to rest today. He died aged 77, not from Covid-19 but just before the lockdown. And they told us what it was like not being able to have all his friends and family around them.

• Video report by ITV Central correspondent Charlotte Cross

James Bowen didn’t die from Coronavirus.

But the pandemic has managed to make the hardest of days even harder for those he left behind.

No more than a handful of his closest family were able to attend his funeral in Smethwick this afternoon.

Each of the three households there were forced to remain at least two metres apart, according to the government guidelines

Unable to share a hug of support.

Unable to wipe away one another’s tears.

“It’s really hard,” his granddaughter Holly Nolan said.

“We’re not allowed to be together as a family. We’re not allowed to say our goodbyes properly.”

Mr Bowen died immediately before the lockdown was imposed - and his family said their funeral arrangements were quickly scaled down to just 20 people in attendance, and then to just nine.

His eldest son, Ivor, was unable to attend as he is classed amongst the most vulnerable in society, and has to be shielded.

Meanwhile his sister, who lives in America, could not get a flight due to travel restrictions.

Instead, it was only his daughter Marie, her two daughters and their families, as well as his youngest son, who were able to attend.

But being in separate households, they had to stand apart, unable to find comfort in one another.

“This is the first time we’ve all seen each other for more than two weeks,” Marie said.

“We’re not able to hug each other, support each other like we’d normally do. We can’t have a wake. We’ve got to home to our separate houses.”

One member of the family who would not ordinarily have been at the funeral was three-year-old Dougie.

Because of the restrictions, there was no one else able to care for him.

“How do we explain this to him? All he wants to do is see his Granddad Jim, and we can’t even comfort him,” Marie added.

Mr Bowen had lived in Whitehall Lodge Care Home in West Bromwich for the past 17 years.

They, too, were unable to attend.

Instead, the hearse drove past before heading to the cemetery - giving his friends and staff a brief chance to pay their respects on the roadside.

And as well as not being able to hold the funeral they would have liked, Mr Bowen’s family say it was a struggle just to get flowers.

They finally managed to find someone who could donate some from a local rose garden, at the last minute.

But this is the new reality facing families during lockdown.

And supporting them through it, are funeral directors like Mark Jackson, who runs M Jackson & Sons in Wolverhampton.

He said he normally deals with around three funerals a week - but since the pandemic took hold, that has increased.

This week, he’s dealing with 12.

But despite additional difficulties with arrangements - including finding flowers and limiting numbers - he said families generally do seem to understand why the precautions are necessary.

“It’s obviously very difficult,” he said. “But mostly, families have been understanding.”

Mr Bowen’s family hope to organise another memorial once the lockdown is over - to allow those who couldn’t be there today their chance to say goodbye.