Is your friend able to make it over for the funeral?
My sister was unable to make it back from the states for my step mums last year because she was going through gaining citizenship. It broke her heart to not be able to see her mum before she died or to not be able to make it to her funeral. We arranged for the funeral to be videoed so it could be sent out to my sister with the funeral directors. Sadly they dropped their camcorder that morning and didnt bother to tell us until they arrrived with the hearse! By then it was too late for us to organise one amongst us and do it ourselves. We did however take pictures at the wake so my sister was able to see who was there to say goodbye and she called and spoke to everyone too.
I hope your friend is able to make it over though, but just in case, theres a few ideas that might make it a little less hard on her not being here to say goodbye in person.