There will be seven mourners in John Passant's funeral today.
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In normal times, his friends reckon there would be hundreds.
The Canberra poet, blogger and political activist was the kind of man who engaged with everyone - and so everyone wants to come, according to his friend and musical collaborator, Milena Cifali.
"I've had so many people message me asking how they can pay their respects at this time," she said.
"For a man who made such a profound mark on all who knew him, in normal times there would have been anywhere from 200 to 500 people at his funeral."
Mr Passant blogged enthusiastically so his circle was wide. His friends say he was a man of good humour (and bad "dad jokes"). They want to say the final farewell.
But the restrictions confine the number to only seven close family and friends plus the funeral director and staff.
Milena Cifali has collaborated with Mr Passant in the past, setting his poems to music.
In the funeral, she and her partner, Jim Horvath, will play their setting of Mr Passant's poem about death: "Let there be no mourning when tomorrows become today."
"It's going to be very odd. Usually, when you prepare to sing for a funeral, you are expecting to sing to at least 20 if not a hundred," Milena Cifali said.
In her mind, she felt she would be singing to her friend.
John Passant's funeral needs to be big but not everyone needs a large funeral. For some, the restrictions barely matter.
One man who cremated his partner last Thursday said that the smallness of the gathering hadn't bothered him. In fact, the intimacy had something to recommend it.
The way that we communicate love is through touch. Words fall away but you can communicate in an extraordinary way through touch.
- Father Tony Percy
He had a professional videographer there and the service was broadcast to mourners across the country.
About 45 people clicked to view the funeral online but each click may have represented more than one person - families would have watched from afar, leaving the handful of immediate mourners alone.
"It was probably a lot more intimate," said Sid, as he wished to be called.
"The people that I wanted were there. When the funeral started, I felt I was part of it.
"Three people spoke - the priest, myself and one other family member who was close to my partner.
"We've made arrangements that when the world gets back to normal, we will have a memorial service."
Funeral directors are adapting to a world which may not get back to normal.
Toscan Dinn Funerals in Woden hires a professional videographer who can leave the camera rolling so he doesn't take the place of a mourner.
Funerals are now held so that the timing is convenient for people to watch in other countries.
Funeral director, Paul Compton, said that he and his staff stand outside to allow more family members inside.
"Live-streaming and funeral service recordings have been extremely effective in allowing a large number of people to 'attend' the funeral," Mr Compton said.
"It will be the way of the future."
He said there hadn't been any attempts to crowd people into funerals and break the rules. The Canberra Crematorium enforces the restrictions - it would be fined if it didn't.
And Mr Compton says he tells families that the coffin will not leave the hearse if there are too many mourners.
Restrictions have been eased in a few cases, he said.
"Whilst funerals are restricted to ten attendees (including the celebrant), we have had a funeral recently where circumstances saw the ACT Chief Health Officer grant an exemption to lift that number to 14."
The deceased man was single and his many nieces and nephews were part of the family. It was hard to exclude any of them so an exemption was made.
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Priests, too, are adapting.
One of the best ways of comforting grieving people is to clasp their hands or hug them, according to Father Tony Percy who has conducted several restricted funerals in Manuka lately.
"The way that we communicate love is through touch. Words fall away but you can communicate in an extraordinary way through touch," he said.
He had to hold back from physical contact with grieving people, signalling sympathy instead with words and gestures.
In the Catholic Church, as in other Christian churches, funerals are also about offering the hope of a new life beyond the grave.
Father Percy said of one restricted funeral: "We were able to have a dignified ceremony remembering the person's life and their hope for resurrection."
In a way, he felt, small funerals were a return to colonial ways, particularly in country areas where, before refrigeration, burial had to be quick and often before the priest arrived. Few but immediate family were involved.
Father Percy thinks that the ways now being forced on us will remain - live-streaming, in particular. "History accelerates in times of crisis," he says.
There are other ways in which funerals may change permanently, according to Dr Hannah Gould, an anthropologist at the University of Melbourne who studies the rituals of death around the world.
"We want to be careful and not make universal judgments," she told The Canberra Times. People grieve and remember the dead in different ways, not just in different countries but within Australia.
There were new ways of remembering people, like drawing up Spotify play-lists of their music where the mourners each chose a favourite song associated with the deceased. The play-list could be shared and happy memories triggered.
People could meet on video chat sites to remember the dead, perhaps after watching a live-stream of the funeral.
She said that when a friend of her father's died, his pals organised a trivia night in his memory.
Mourning takes many new forms.
"It takes a bit of creativity," Dr Gould said, with approval.
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