Missed Funerals and Separated Families: Stories of Life-Altering COVID Restrictions

Unvaccinated Canadians were able to take a domestic flight once again on June 20, but for some, the damage had already been done, after having missed key life moments due to the vaccine mandate.

Not being there for a loved one in times of need, missing a funeral, and couples living across the border not being able to see each other are some of the stories heard by The Epoch Times.

A review of the court documents pertaining to four lawsuits challenging the travel mandate shed light on the government’s rationale for not allowing compassionate exemptions for unvaccinated Canadians to travel.

The cabinet wanted a strict mandate with as few exemptions as possible, and so policy-makers drafted a mandate they thought would be “world-leading.”

The policy was described as “one of the strongest vaccination mandates for travellers in the world” when presented to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in an Oct. 2 brief.

The idea was to make the federally-regulated transportation system as safe as possible by barring the unvaccinated.

This was done while there was limited data on in-flight transmission, court documents show, and at a time when studies had already suggested that individuals infected with COVID-19, vaccinated or not, carry similar amounts of viral load.

While the vaccine mandate for domestic travel in planes and trains was recently suspended, it still applies to cruise ships and border restrictions continue to impede the reunification of families.

The Epoch Times heard from many people who were affected by the vaccine policy, from being separated from family members to not being able to attend special celebrations or funerals. The following accounts are just a few of the people The Epoch Times spoke to. Loss

Not being able to be close to a dying relative or missing a funeral was highlighted several times in the accounts.

Angela Bell from Ontario says she had planned one last trip to Mexico with her father after his last round of chemotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer. The trip had to be cancelled in the early days of the pandemic and despite attempts to rebook, her father eventually passed away nine months later.

“One of dad’s bucket lists was to spend a Christmas with his feet in the sand, so my family and I thought it would be nice to take that trip with his ashes but the government invoked the vaccine mandate, and because my husband, my daughter and I are the only ones not vaccinated, we could not book it,” Bell said.

Now with the mandate suspended, she says she can’t afford a 14-day quarantine, especially since her firefighter husband has been on leave without pay for eight months for refusing COVID-19 injections.

Bell says she hasn’t been able to properly mourn her father and that the government has disrupted her life and “turned it upside down.”

Rachel from Quebec, who asked to only provide her first name due to concerns of potential repercussions, told The Epoch Times she missed the funeral of her uncle in Dec. 2021 and that of her aunt in March 2022.

Then in March, her 76-year-old mother broke her leg. Rachel says she had to take a four-day bus ride to Saskatchewan to go see her.

Virginia Anderson from B.C. says her stepfather in Ontario had a deteriorating health condition. Despite the long drive, she said she was preparing to make the trip, but he passed away from a heart attack before she could get there.

“The grief of his dying was made all the more heavy by my anger at the circumstances at not being able to fly there,” says Anderson.

Unvaccinated Canadians can now take a plane from anywhere within Canada, but border restrictions are still in place. Upon re-entering the country they need to quarantine for 14 days.

Unvaccinated foreign nationals cannot travel to Canada for purposes such as tourism while entering for compassionate reasons requires asking for an exemption.

Eric Chambers from B.C. is part of a bi-national family spanning into the state of Washington.

“Knowing that we could meet our loved ones in about 80 other countries now, but not in one another’s homes, across a border that has always been an undefended friendly one, has been very hard to accept,” he says.

Chambers says he’s been unable to say goodbye to one grandparent who passed away and comfort the surviving other, and his child hasn’t been able to attend a single family dinner in the U.S. since 2019.

“My wife cries at some point just about every day, feeling so badly for not being able to be there for our family members, and her closest friends across the border—and for all that our child has missed out on due to these restrictions.”

Christine Dougherty is an American citizen with permanent resident status in Canada and living in Ontario.

Residing in a border town, she says life pre-COVID meant “running over the border without a hassle.” Her daughters would even go to school daily in the U.S.

Now she can go back without issue, but she needs to quarantine if she re-enters Canada and her work won’t allow her to be away for so long.

“I was close to my nephews growing up and now three of them have children of their own that I don’t even know. My niece has children I’ve never laid eyes on,” she says.

“I lost a big part of my life. I no longer can visit the city I grew up in. It’s like being a prisoner behind a locked border.”

While border town families are being separated, some couples with different nationalities are also struggling.

Hope Vanbeselaere from Manitoba is married to an American citizen working in Texas. Before restrictions, she says they could see each other as often as their schedules would allow. Now it’s limited to once per year.

Her unvaccinated husband cannot enter Canada as the government doesn’t allow immediate family reunification. The U.S. also doesn’t allow unvaccinated travellers, though some Canadians are crossing the land border without being asked about their vaccination status.

Vanbeselaere says she doesn’t want to risk crossing to avoid jeopardizing her residency application.

“We literally may never see each other again, let alone be able to have a life together,” she says.

“At this point it’s only our faith in God that is keeping us going. We’ve lost our freedoms, our families, and years of time we will never get back.”

Vera Post from Ontario told The Epoch Times she hasn’t been able to see her American husband since 2020.

“I may not have missed out on a wedding, funeral, etc., but this is still as significant. This time lost, we will never get back. And the pain is equivalent to a death,” she said.

“Government needs to be held accountable for our suffering, and the hundreds of thousands of cross-border families who are in our situation.”

Veronica Roelands from Ontario said she is unable to be with her American fiancé or make wedding plans as his visa status remains uncertain. Throughout the pandemic they’ve used different exemptions and loopholes to see each other, but the net has since tightened.

Roelands went to the U.S. before the mandate came into force and stayed there for the six-month limit.

Now back home, she says they have “no real hope of seeing each other or planning a wedding.” Her fiancé is now waiting on a visa to be approved, which she says could take as long as a year and a half.

“We want to start our lives together but these outdated and inconsistent restrictions have made what should have been an easy, carefree relationship into a very stressful one,” she says.

The lockdowns, elder abuse and missed funerals happened in the US too. My uncle had a very close knit family. Sunday dinners every week. Hunting and fishing trips. Support for the kids and grandchildren in sports. He reached a point where he needed more care than his family could accomplish at home. He went to a nearby assisted living. No sooner settled than COVID hit. The facility prohibited visits from his family. Not even phone calls. He survived that isolation about 5 weeks then died. He never had any sickness. None of his family was sick.

My cousin (my age) was stricken with stomach cancer. His wife was ensuring that he got the pain meds he needed. COVID arrived. The hospital staff would not allow his wife to visit and they were not getting his pain meds to him. He died alone in horrible pain. Inexcusable.

We know from past experience about the cruelty that humans can inflict on other humans. The level of cruelty and inhumanity that has occurred during the COVID scamdemic is mind blowing, frankly. Whatever happened to “never again”? The atrocities, genocide, democide, emotional & physical cruelty/inhumanity IS happening again around the world & in our own country ... but then again, with what happened on the 8th with the raid on Trump, the tyrants are unmasked and they are playing for keeps ... no holds barred. The very “old” folks seem to the the only ones who remember what “never again” means. If history books are ever written in an accurate manner again, there will be two Holocausts in those book ... the one caused by the Nazis and the one that is currently under way.

I have no sympathy for the simpering, docile, compliant peasants who live under ELECTED totalitarian regimes in countries like Canada.

I was on the phone with a former client of mine in Canada a couple of weeks ago. I was astonished that he and his family haven’t been to their summer home in another Canadian province in more than two years — due to various restrictions that have been in place up there.

HE was astonished when I told him the “pandemic” ended for me and the people in the area where I live by May of 2020.

Our grandkids other Grandmother was basically killed by the governor of NJ.

She was living in what had been a good home for seniors.

In January of the first Covid, she got sick and was sent to a NJ hospital for a few days.

Then, she was discharged and sent back to her nursing home. She could not have visitors from families or friends.

They put her on injectable Versed and an IV narcotic and intubated her.

My RN wife asked what the hell was going on.

I told her, that nursing home had become a Hospice and was using what the Brits were using get rid of patients.

The poor woman died in a couple of days, alone and without being able to say goodbye to family and friends. Her funeral couldn’t be held until August, basically 8 months after she died.

Flash forward to California and one of my best friends for decades was in a premium home for senior people. He had severe Parkinson’s and was still there mentally. He apparently, developed Covid and died without his family nor friends.

A year later a SIL was diagnosed with acute onset of Adult leukemia. She was late in getting her yearly checkups due to Covid. They tried various treatments, and she was to far gone. The docs wanted to put her into a terminal halfway house, about 2.5 hours from home.

She said hell no and returned home, got hospice and died in her home with her family visiting everyday and were there when she died.

Due to Covid impacting our health systems, many if not millions of Americans have been delay re need surgery or procedures. My wife’s hip replacement was delayed for months. We have other friends/relatives in pain, each day due to “delayed” surgeries/procedures.

Fortunately, I was able to get a bad toe lopped off in the podiatry office a year ago. My wife got her eye floaters zapped in the office. Both of us were home post procedures in less than an hour.

A lady friend is hopefully getting the heart surgery tomorrow, she has needed for a year. The last cancellation was due to the surgeon and 2 scrub nurses getting Covid.

Covid “epidemics” have caused previously planned surgeries/procedures to be cancelled from sea to sea.

He died alone in horrible pain. Inexcusable.
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In 2020, I was able to get Last Rites for both of my parents. I was my mom’s eyes and ears. Over the years of being her caregiver, I knew what she wanted. I moved her to Hospice 6 days later I was locked out. She cried for me day and night and my heart broke for her.

6 weeks later, I was given 1 hour to visit her. She died the next day. The hospice called me: come right away your mom is dying.

Yes people died of covid, but many many more of us suffered with the crazy and unnecessary covid lockdowns. How many died alone? How many survivors still cry? I do.
At least my folks aren’t suffering (my dad choked to death in a nursing home, again I got a call, come quick...)

I still cry. Suffer.

For my family.

My aunt - dying in a nursing home - NO visitors allowed inside. She was sent home and died the next day.

Funeral: No one was allowed to attend - my cousin had to watch her mother buried from inside her car.

Daughter: Could NOT find a wedding venue in the Bay Area, all closed “temporarily” due to COVID - right after she’d bought the dress. We wanted a family event b/c we’d attended so many funerals in the past few years.

She and now-husband decided on to get married at the courthouse - in 2020 - now if I bring up a wedding, she won’t hear of is, she is so angry and it is two years after the fact.

Husband entered hospital with final stage cancer - I was NOT ALLOWED inside hospital, let alone to visit. He’d forgotten to take his cell phone so we had no communication for two days - no one returned our calls and no doctor, nurse, etc. ever called. We finally got a cell phone to him - dropped off at the door, he called screaming to get out of there, someone finally wheeled him to the curb where we were able to pick him up. Called hospice and he was able to die at home two days later. No funeral.

Thanks for posting your personal and terrible Covid tragedies.

The B$ of our loved ones dying in Nursing homes and Hospices out of homes besides being a criminal disaster, it was the same from the East Coast to middle America and of course on the West Coast.

Too much damn coordination re the grim realities.

Our SIL, who died from what she called Covid Leukemia, cracked the code and used hospice but in her home.

One of my wife’s closest West Coast Friends had hospice in their home as her husband took close to a month to die. He checked out what he called soul-less and cruel so called nursing home to come home to be with his wife, family and friends the last few weeks. One of his last concerns was a couple from our church in the soul-less home.

They have no surviving relatives and didn’t do the proper paperwork before going to the home. Basically, there is nothing that non named people can do for them as terminal patients.

The nursing home, city/county and state will share the proceeds from their California paid for home.

Covid gave the upper echelon/elite/fascist politicians around the world, the opportunity to persecute and harass citizens in conformity with their long-pent-up admiration of the nazis.

Just a small additions to your excellent reality post.

This Covid harassment is going on around the world.

We have new neighbors. He is from Australia, and she is from Canada.

As bad as we are with our Covid B$, apparently Australia and Canada are worse.

So, they moved here to raise their young children.

You certainly had bad experiences with the lockdowns. It's especially distressing when it happens to your parents. My dad inhaled ash from the Fall 2003 fires in San Diego while cleaning around the pool the day before Thanksgiving. Friday after Thanksgiving his lungs were in trouble. My mom took him to Balboa Naval Hospital. He developed ARDS. During the night something happened. He didn't recognize my mom on Saturday morning after 50 years of marriage. He was intubated and not monitored. The tube clogged. The staff came to his rescue when lack of oxygen stopped his heart. They restarted. Pointless. He deteriorated until Dec 17 when the decision to withdraw life support was made. I wasn't advised he was even in the hospital until Saturday after Thanksgiving. He was cognitively gone by that time. I called the ICU daily. Never any glimmer of hope.

Condolences on your experience. Really bad with lockdowns.

Thanks for sharing your story as well.

I think these anecdotes are extremely important to share.

I believe the deaths in my family were hastened b/c we were not allowed to visit, to be with our loved ones in their time of dire need. The worst was the hospital where my husband was - I, as his wife, wasn’t allowed to even enter the building. I knew he was in there suffering, alone and very afraid.

I am only glad that my loved ones were able to die at home, including my mother who also died during this horrible time - we were able to bring in hospice care for her - she was 96 and had had a long, wonderful life. We were able to be with her in her last moments.

At the same time, I had to put down my elderly and beloved dog - unlike the hospital, I was allowed in the vet’s office to say good-bye.

It felt like a plague had gone through my family - but in the end, it made those of us left closer than ever. My faith helped as well - a lot.

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