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Collected Item: “Attending a Family Funeral During COVID-19”

Give your story a title.

Attending a Family Funeral During COVID-19

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

photo, text story

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

Standing outside in the cold dry wind, everyone was wearing masks. Small groups were huddled together but each grouping apart from the other. This was not how it was meant to be. The week before Christmas, I experienced this attending a relative's funeral. The pandemic made a traditional funeral impossible. Typically the gathering would be large and focused on coming together for strength. The service was minimized to a graveside service where social distancing could be practiced. The death was not COVID related, but the resulting affects of COVID completely disrupted our most guarded family traditions. The inconveniences of daily COVID restrictions seem trivial in comparison to the large moments that can never be replaced. Our family hopes for a future day when we can properly mourn this loss hand in hand.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#deathways #RuralVoices #ASU #HSE

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Clinton P. Roberts

Give this story a date.

2020-12-17
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