Mourning in a Pandemic
Lights surround the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, placed as a memorial to COVID-19 victims Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, in Washington, after President-elect Joe Biden spoke, with the U.S. Capitol in the background. AP Photo/Alex Brandon
COVID-19 has killed nearly 20,000 Illinoisans. And for the friends and families left behind, rituals of mourning have been curtailed or prevented.
We talk about saying goodbye in a pandemic with a Chicago pastor whose community — and whose own friends and family — have been hard hit by COVID-19; a southern Illinois academic who studies death and grieving; and a funeral director from the Quad Cities.
Guests:
The Rev. Marshall Hatch, pastor of the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago's West Garfield community. He's also a professor of ministry at Northern Seminary in Lisle, and the author of the forthcoming book Absent In The Body: Eulogies of Life & Death in Black Chicago.
Jocelyn DeGroot, professor of applied communication at SIU-Edwardsville. She studies death and grieving, and last year published an opinion piece in The New York Times called "What Should You Say When Someone is Grieving?"
Kevin Rafferty, president of Rafferty Funeral Home in Moline
Prepared for web by Zainab Qureshi
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