If you are living overseas and will not be able to travel home in time for the funeral of a loved one, here are some ideas that could help you with this issue.

Find out if the funeral home staff could live stream the funeral

If you had a strong bond with the deceased and their immediate family, then the thought of missing out on a chance to be present at their funeral could be devastating. If this is the case, then it might be worth calling or emailing the funeral home to find out if the funeral could be live streamed. Many funeral homes are now accustomed to receiving these requests due to how common the live streaming of various events has become. Making this request would allow you to be a part of this final farewell, even if you're thousands of miles away from the funeral home.

Provided the deceased's relatives are okay with you arranging this and the funeral home's staff members have access to the technology needed for this process, being digitally present during the funeral could make the experience of saying your goodbyes to the deceased, whilst being so far away from home, a little easier. If you decide to do this, you must make sure that the room in which you sit and observe the live stream is quiet.  

Put plenty of thought into the message you attach to the flowers

If the person who passed away was well known, then there might be dozens of flower bouquets on display at the funeral home, all of which may have earnest but very commonplace expressions written on their cards (such as 'sorry for your loss'). There is nothing wrong with these types of messages; however, if you cannot be physically present at the funeral and you will be sending some flowers to the funeral home as a way of expressing your condolences, then it's worth putting some extra thought into the message you attach to these flowers.

This will ensure that the family members who read it will see that even though you were unable to be there in person, you still cared enough to write more than just one or two common phrases. You might, for example, want to write a list of the things you loved most about the deceased, the life lessons they imparted or the specific ways in which they had a positive impact on the world at large.