Final farewells at Mexico cemetery lose luster

CIUDAD NEZAHUALCOYOTL: The peculiar nature of the job means they have more work than ever right now. But Mexico’s gravediggers and crematorium workers say they are paying a heavy price for constant exposure to other people’s grief during the coronavirus pandemic. The silver protective suit worn by Jose Ramirez makes him look like an astronaut. So far it’s been an effective shield against infection, but it offers no barrier to other people’s suffering, he says. “You don’t get used to other people’s pain, and when you are handing over the urn, it affects you and it’s very difficult for us to stand it,” said Ramirez. The 49-year-old is in charge of receiving corpses at the municipal cemetery in Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl just outside Mexico City, then delivering the ashes back to the family after cremation three hours later.

“Maybe you have to harden your appearance, but you don’t lose your sentimental side,” he said. The gas oven in front of him flared as he introduced a black body bag containing a suspected COVID-19 victim. It was the eighth bagged corpse he and his work partner Juan Carlos Cruz cremated that day. Both men say they are emotionally affected by the confusion of families who are bewildered by the speed with which the disease kills. “They tell you: I arrive at the hospital with my relative, I chat to him. After three or four days he’s no longer with me. And then they give him back to me in ashes,” said Cruz, 37.

Cruz admits the whole business gives him the creeps: “I’m scared of becoming infected. We run a lot of risks, we have family, we have people waiting for us at home.” Humberto Montes’ work by contrast has pretty much dried up. A funeral musician, his serenades for the dead - long a part of final farewells in Mexico - are no longer wanted by grieving families who are shocked at the swiftness of death and burial during the pandemic. These men are the last links in a chain of tragedy leading from sick bed to hospital to a tomb in this Mexico City suburb. The pandemic sweeping through Mexico has so far left more than 105,000 people infected and caused almost 13,000 deaths.—AFP