Covid and Grief; Resilience

Uploaded: Jul 24, 2020

With nearly a 150,000 people having died in the US from Covid-19 and many, many more around the world, there are millions of people grieving the death of a loved one. And they are home grieving, alone or with their shelter-in-place bubble.
Add on the grief of losses that aren’t death-specific:
-People from all walks of life missing their friends, family and community
-College students unable to individuate from their parents and launch into adulthood
-High School students missing life passages (we don’t have many rites of passage in this country anyway)
-Younger kids missing school and the set up for the rest of their education and friend-building time
-Jobs
-Income
-Businesses floundering or going under completely
-Eye contact (masks make it harder, but that’s okay; the masks are too important)
-All sorts of things/plans everyone had are on the back burner

On the flip side, there has been an incredible sense of and growth in community:
-BLM
-People making PPEs
-Donations are up
-Physically distanced gatherings
-Video gatherings for dinner, music, hanging out
-People saying hello and talking on walks in the neighborhood
-Gardening and sharing what’s grown
-Creativity in supply chain (e.g., getting fruits/veggies from farms to individuals instead of to restaurants)

Companies are working at breakneck speed to come up with Covid vaccines, medications, and making great headway.
I’m even getting used to seeing everyone wearing masks (I stay home most of the time; grocery shopping after good meal planning are my main outings).

We are in this together. We will weather the grief, call upon our communal strength. No one knows what comes next, or when. But we do have choices: to care for others by wearing a mask, to be kind, to listen when someone needs an ear and a heart to “hold” them and their pain.

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