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How A Nation Grieves At Home

An attendee drives past during a viewing for Mrs. Barbara Lipscomb at the Fellows, Helfenbein & Newnam Funeral Home in Centreville, Maryland.
An attendee drives past during a viewing for Mrs. Barbara Lipscomb at the Fellows, Helfenbein & Newnam Funeral Home in Centreville, Maryland.

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not more. Unfortunately for some, that means they’ve been personally affected by the loss of a loved one. And in the U.S. alone, at least 90,000 people have died from COVID-19.

In some parts of the country, funerals have been put on hold and families are forced to bury their loved ones without a traditional mourning process. And in some instances, those with no next-of-kin or the means to pay for a funeral have been buried in mass graves. It’s even affected those who have died from other causes during this pandemic

Life has changed under the efforts of social distancing and isolation, and so has death itself. Without the ability to come together and say goodbye, dealing with loss is fundamentally different. While some are in isolation, it doesn’t mean they are grieving alone.

If you lost a loved one to COVID, how are you holding up? What has this been like for you? What has helped you get through this? Find the ways to reach us here

We share your stories.

Copyright 2020 WAMU 88.5

Kaity Kline
Kaity Kline is an Assistant Producer at Morning Edition and Up First. She started at NPR in 2019 as a Here & Now intern and has worked at nearly every NPR news magazine show since.