A Kiwi woman unable to attend a physical service during New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdown organised an "online funeral" for her late grandmother with many relatives.
Two weeks ago, Ianeta Hutchinson's nan passed away in New Zealand. Hutchison was overseas and with global travel restrictions, most of her family had no chance of attending a funeral.
So Hutchison organised the next best thing. With her family back in New Zealand organising the physical services, she organised the online version.
"Nan was a cool lady," Hutchison told The Project on Thursday. "I can imagine her voice saying, 'it was just lovely'. She would have been all about it.
"Hearing all the stories and learning about my nan as a young woman was my favourite part."
Hutchison said there were some nerves before the service.
"Then everybody's faces start popping up and the music is going - you do start feeling like you're together and you cry together and you laugh together.
"We won't do another funeral when lockdown ends. It was different to an in-person funeral but we got the closure, we got the togetherness, we got the healing that we needed from this part in the process so we're going to get together and we're going to share memories of nan - but the funeral part, we all got closure on and are ready to move forward."
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