With public gatherings being restricted to ten people or fewer in Wisconsin, those who are dealing with funerals are being put in an awfully tough spot. Many are being forced to choose who can be present for funeral and burial services, and that can be a taxing task.
At Casimir Catholic Church in Krakow, Wisconsin on Friday a funeral service for Leverne Ripley was limited to just ten people. A hard reality for the family that anticipated upwards of 1,000 guests. On Friday two of Leverne's children shared their struggle as they grappled with the hard decisions.
"I mean we get it, this is a societal health issue and we're trying to honor her but it was hard not to be able to have a full church for Mom. She was very, very Catholic and I am sure she wanted a big send-off," explains Rebecca Ripley.
Rebecca and her brother Rob say their mom was one of nine siblings total, a woman who had nine children of her own and also accumulated 17 grandchildren and an additional 14 great grandchildren over the course of her lifetime. They add that by offering the majority of those relatives the opportunity to watch their mother's funeral online, rather than in person, they made a decision that was best for everyone.
"We did the best we could with what we had to deal with and honored every rule there was because they are there for a really good reason. They are not there to punish anybody. We understand that, we're the last one that wants somebody to get sick and we're trying hard not to," says Rob Ripley.
And while the majority of friends and loved ones couldn't make it too Krakow, in person, those that did even though they couldn't make it inside the church, did something that meant the world to the entire family.
"We told people if they wanted to park around the cemetery where we did the burial they could watch from their cars. So there were like 30 people parked all the way around the cemetery just watching as we put our mother in the ground," adds Rob Ripley.
Because while it might not be the funeral the Ripleys expected, it was one they think their mother and grandmother would be pleased with, especially considering the great lengths that some guests went through, just to to show the family they cared.
