Funeral directors and florists have seen the sympathy business completely upended to comply with social distancing efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. “The outbreak has changed virtually everything for us,” wrote Char Barrett, a funeral director in Everett, Washington, in a recent article for The Washington Post.

Typically, Barrett and her staff meet grieving families to discuss funeral arrangements in person, with warm, fresh-baked cookies and snuggles from a comfort dog. They also personally deliver the death certificate, ready to offer a hug when loved ones receive this emotional document. “All of these touchstones — these moments of connecting with our families — are being replaced by this insidious virus,” she said. Phone calls or Zoom video chats have become the new norm.

The hardest part of her job, though, has been telling people they will not being seeing their deceased family members and reiterating that only 10 people can attend a funeral service. “It’s excruciating,” she said.

In a recent article for The New York Times, investigative reporter Jodi Kantor spoke to a variety of professionals studied in “the art of dying,” including funeral directors, religious leaders and historians, who shared how bereavement looked during tragedies such as Europe’s Black Death, America’s Civil War and the Cambodian genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge. “When disasters limit mourning, people invent new ways to say goodbye,” Kantor wrote.

One such example during the current crisis: latex balloons, weighted to chairs with a personal message attached, to symbolize mourners unable to attend a funeral. Lisa Filice, owner of Expressions Floral and president of Regional Farms, Inc. in Gilroy and Hollister, California, began offering this service, dubbed “Hugs from Heaven,” last week.

“The funeral home sets on the chairs, and when the immediate 10 family members look out, they see a room full of love rather than an empty room,” she explained in a post on her personal Facebook page.

Filice came across the idea on a florist-to-florist Facebook group and shared it with her local funeral directors who reacted very enthusiastically.

“They called it ‘very touching’ and asked me to promote it on my website right away because they planned to immediately mention it in their circles,” she said. “They are happy to do anything to make funeral services a little less depressing right now.”

Filice charges $4 per balloon, with no delivery charge. “We’re located right next door to one funeral home,” she said. “And we can drive balloons to the others, if necessary.”

“Hugs from Heaven” won’t generate much profit, given current helium prices, but it keeps Filice’s business top of mind. “We hope that these families will reach out down the road should they host belated memorials for their loved ones,” she said. “In any event, though, it feels good to do a little something to ease their suffering right now.”

Katie Hendrick Vincent is the senior contributing editor and writer for the Society of American Florists.