Mourners Struggle to Grieve N.S. Mass Murder Victims During Pandemic

A memorial is set up across the street from the Debert School, where Lisa McCully, one of the victims of a mass shooting by Gabriel Wortman, taught grades 3 and 4, in Debert, Nova Scotia, Canada, on April 20, 2020. John Morris/Reuters

The death toll from a massacre that stretched across rural Nova Scotia last weekend rose to 23 Tuesday as families grappled with the heart-wrenching question of how to mourn during a pandemic that is forcing people to stay apart.

Tammy Oliver-McCurdie, whose sister Jolene Oliver, brother-in-law Aaron Tuck and niece Emily Tuck were among the dead, was struggling with how to plan funerals. The victims have loved ones in both Nova Scotia and Alberta, where the sisters grew up, and the pandemic makes travel difficult.