One segment of business in Ontario has had to adapt fast throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in a way that was never anticipated.
At times, funeral homes have been limited to just immediate family members of a loved one who had died.
They'll now be allowed to hold indoor services at up to 25 per cent capacity within a particular room on Wednesday under Phase 2 of the provinces reopening plan.
Jennifer Wells is general manager of Families First Funeral Home.
She says it's been hard watching people mourn from afar when it's human nature to be there for loved ones.
"To show up with food, show up for visitation and to show up for those people to honour them and respect them to show their family how much the meant," she says. "I think over the last 15 months that has been a very fractured process."
Wells says lessons have been learned by the entire industry.
"How can we facilitate online? How can we facilitate people who can't be present? How do we connect to people and the community to honour loved ones who have passed away and do it safely," says Wells.
She says everyone's looking forward to bringing back the social connection that helps families heal.
"We're very excited to see that we're going to able to start our path back to some normal," she added.
Outdoor funerals and religious services are only capped by the number of people that can fit in a space and maintain a physical distance of two metres.
The changes go into effect Wednesday at 12:01am.
- with files from AM800's Patty Handysides