i do death

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What A Week.

I’ve been trying to keep up with posting, but your girl’s been busy. 

It’s been quite a week.

With the knowledge that the majority of the city was going to be cooped up, people flocked to the grocery stores, and it brought to light something that most of us already knew. 

There are lots of people out there who suck. 

Fighting over toilet paper. Attempting to price gouge household necessities. 

Those people are trash. This week has also shown us something else.

There are lots of people out there who don’t suck. 

Medical professionals are bending over backwards to try to get in front of this thing. 

Grocery store workers braving the public on a daily basis for pennies on the dollar. 

Volunteers passing out food to homeless people and feeding kids who rely on school lunches.

…and then there’s death. 

Death doesn’t stop. She’s rude as hell and keeps coming back for more. Especially during times like these. It’s been a weird week for death care. 

Lots of places are doing immediate burials and direct cremations only. I’ve had to have that rough conversation about cancelling services more times than I’d like to share. 
It’s rough. Public health has overtaken compassion and there’s not much we can do about it. It goes against the altruistic nature of any funeral care worker. We hate it, but right now, we have to do it. Of course allowing memorials at a later date is a given, but I can understand how that just doesn’t feel like enough. 

Whether you’ve just experienced a death or are further along on your journey, it’s so easy to allow grief to make you feel even more isolated from your support group.

Here are a few things I thought might help. 

  1. Call/text/email your therapist. Don’t have a therapist? Try Talkspace or Betterhelp

  2. Not ready for therapy? Pick a trusted family member or friend and FaceTime them. 

  3. ZOOM with your family to share memories and stories. 

  4. Create a shared google doc to write thoughts that you want to share with family. 

  5. Create a shared playlist of their favorite songs and allow family members and friends to add to it. You can do this on Spotify

Whatever you’re doing, however you’re coping, you’re not alone.

Be well