Lester Mcelroy, Kelvin's father and survivor of multiple cancers throughout his 88 years of life, died "peacefully" in his sleep last Friday after a two-year battle with dementia.
The Avonlea Dementia Care and Rest Home resident and great-grandfather was the "loving" husband of the late Jeanette and leaves behind children David, Janet and Kelvin.
A celebration of his life was meant to take place at 2pm on Wednesday at the Canterbury Crematorium Chapel in Harewood.
"It was a wee bit of a shock, you get yourself geared up for [the funeral] and then suddenly you've got lockdown.
"I thought it was only going to be the North Island," he said.
Kelvin felt for others in the same situation, especially those around the world who did not have the chance to "say goodbye to their loved ones" before they died.
New Zealand was plunged into level 4 on Tuesday night after a 58-year-old Auckland man tested positive for the highly infectious Delta variant of Covid-19 with no clear links to the border at the time.
Since then, 20 more positive cases, most of which are linked, have come to light following the announcement of the original case.
It also became clear the original case was tied to the recent outbreak in New South Wales, Australia, following genome sequencing.
"We're looking at this coming Wednesday, but we don't know how bad the outbreak is going to get," he said.
"That's the hardest one, not knowing when we'll be able to stage the funeral."
To make matters worse, Kelvin's family was not sure they could honour Lester's wishes of being buried beside his sister, who died at a young age.
There was a chance he may have to be cremated instead.
"Unfortunately he may not be able to be buried where he wanted.
"According to the council we can't do that because she was married before she died, so we'd need to contact her husband of that time who paid for the gravestone.
"Now we're seeing if my father can be buried with his parents as there's land to the side of them, the funeral director is looking into that so fingers crossed."
Kelvin believed his sports-mad father's competitive nature was what helped him face cancer.
Lester was a former Canterbury amateur boxing champion in the early 1950s and did almost every sport under the sun, including track and road cycling, archery, tennis and even ice skating.
Born in Dunedin, he worked for nearly 30 as a clothing cutter for Lane Walker Rudkin clothing before he was forced to leave after a tumour was found in his spine.
From there, "that's when various forms of cancer came into his life."
Not being able to partake in the sports he loved was a hard pill to swallow until he inspired Kelvin to take up tennis.
"After my mother died I took it quite hard, I was sitting around doing nothing, then [dad] dragged me out to the Halswell Tennis Club," he said.
"I had a game with him every now and then, and I got really good at it."
Being able to cheer his son on from the sidelines at games also got him into a bit of trouble.
"He'd be on the sidelines coaching at me while I was playing, so he got warnings."
Kelvin's mother died of Motor Neurone Disease at 53 more than two decades ago, leaving Lester as a single parent raising three children.
He said his parents met at "one of those dance halls," and the rest was history.
Kelvin was only 18 at the time when his mother was diagnosed therefore he opted to leave his storeman's job at J Rattray & Son to help look after her for four years.
MND causes muscles to waste away over time, leading to progressive loss of mobility in the limbs, and difficulties with speech, swallowing and breathing.
But after all the obstacles his father faced, he was able to watch his family grow up, spending time with grandchildren and eventually, great-grandchildren.
While his family now wait for news on when they can be together again, Kelvin reflected back on happier times with his father.
"When I was growing up he was always having to deal with me, I was quite mischievous."
