Pandemic has reinforced uncertainties in life

Painfully, this has come home to me with the death of my father, writes Mohamed Saeed.

How much different this new “normal” lifestyle would be due to Covid-19 was difficult to imagine, until my octogenarian father tested positive and finally succumbed to this contagion. Painfully, this has come home to me.

Death of a close family or friend is a hurting and a personal experience. However, death due to Covid-19 is more distressing, especially if the loved one is hospitalised and, due to safety regulations, families are separated from the patient and cannot be near the departing soul.

As much as one might be prepared for the death of a family member, as death is certain, we are never ready to receive such sad news.

They say in life there are many uncertainties and Covid-19 has reinforced this adage.

Due to the pandemic, families are unable to grieve and honour their loss in ways that are traditionally or culturally familiar, and this increases the pain.

As I travel through the passage of heartache every day since my father fell ill has been a lesson exposing the best and worst of humanity.

The teaching of Omar ibn Khattab “that you don’t really know a person until you lived with him, travelled with him or did business with him” is so relevant and resonates with profound meaning during these very scary and testing times.

Even though sorrow never really “closes”, with time it usually heals and life moves on.