Online [funeral] arrangements "are being normalized quickly," says David Sloane, professor of urban and community-health planning, policy and history at the University of Southern California and author of "Is the Cemetery Dead?"
"The pandemic creates this extraordinary circumstance," he says. "Most of us can't go to a funeral. We can't go to a cemetery. We can't go to viewing hours. [That's] one of the reasons these [online] startups are growing so rapidly."