Grief in a Different Time

In the May 4 edition of the New Yorker, Laura Collins reflects on grief during the COVID-19 pandemic. To be sure, grief becomes potentially far more complicated for families whose loved ones died by COVID-19. But what has been largely overlooked in the pandemic narrative is the vastly larger number of families whose grief has been made more difficult by our responses to the pandemic.

This is a compelling tale of one person's experience dealing with her father's death in absentia, unable to travel back to the U.S. to be with her family or to even adequately say goodbye. While the issues are well known to those of us who take care of the bereaved, perhaps it will garner more attention because of its focal  point in a major media outlet. 

And a shout out to my friend Rick Andrews, his siblings Laura and Scott, and their family's whole team of funeral professionals in Wilmington, NC who "stepped up" for this family and provided a vital caring presence for the family as they began their grief journey.

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