‘Socially Distanced’ Funerals Inflict Even More Suffering On The Bereaved
The mourning of a loved one is best done with those who knew and loved him: family, friends, and church members. It’s hard to do alone.
By Christine Weerts
May 22, 2020
Eddie was just four years old when his older brother Albert died. The youngest of 10 children, Eddie remembered the funeral well: The casket rested on a set of chairs in the front room of their simple farmhouse, while their congregation and pastor stood outside, behind the fence, near the road.
It was 1925 in rural Wentworth, South Dakota, and Eddie’s family was in quarantine. His sister, 9-year-old Ella, had diphtheria. Albert, 20, was the first in their family to receive the diphtheria vaccination. He died from the shot.
Some 94 years later, Eddie’s family and friends stood behind other “fences,†watching his funeral from a distance — for us, 685 miles — as it was live-streamed from a nearly empty church. We were in quarantine as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/22/socially-distanced-funerals-inflict-even-more-suffering-on-the-bereaved/
