Diary: Houstonians tell their pandemic stories.
SOME WORK FROM HOME; OTHERS ARE ‘ESSENTIAL’ HEROES
The coronavirus pandemic has left no one in Houston untouched. Whether it is a lost job, an ill relative or friend, having to work from home — or having to go to work under extraordinary circumstances — the virus is impacting lives across the region.
The Chronicle asked Houstonians to tell us about life during the pandemic, to tell us in their voices how their personal and professional lives have been altered. Their stories have been edited for clarity and brevity.
First of all, in working with families who’ve lost a loved one, it’s an extremely tense and emotional and trying time under the best of circumstances. With COVID-19, it’s compounded enormously.
Families are facing a situation where, in many cases, they’re not even there with their loved ones when the person passes.
They want to grieve with their other family members, either at the church or at the graveside. Unfortunately, with the restrictions, which are there for a good reason, they oftentimes can’t do that.
One case I had five siblings. When you add their spouses and children, there are already more than 10 people. They can’t have a church service and they can’t have a graveside service.
Then in some situations, they’ve been asked to self-quarantine because their loved one may have died or been suspected of dying of COVID-19, so they can’t even come in to make arrangements.
Most are opting for cremation with a
service later, but in those few cases where they want a burial, we are liv-estreaming from the cemetery with Zoom, which is totally new. We can livestream from the funeral home. In many instances, the family members can't even get there. I'm seeing a large number of people wanting to prearrange because they are scared. Again, they don't want to come in, but they want to take care of all the details in case something happens to
their loved ones, especially seniors.
The most difficult thing is that with a funeral, society and a community come together around those who are grieving to support those people in their grief. And now we can’t do that, or we have to find new ways to do that.
The staff, we are all dealing with individuals who have died of COVID-19. We’re following universal precautions. Like everyone else, we’re finding there are limited PPEs (personal protective equipment). We have people who are coming into the funeral home to pick up cremains or death certificates, and everyone is very, very nervous.