For my rebooted "In Conversation With..." - telling the stories of those whose jobs are impacted by the pandemic - I chose my interview with a funeral director, because that's the business I grew up in, and I have a tendency to talk about death a lot.

Now that I'm talking about death here... I'd like to share some thoughts of the funeral director I interviewed that relate directly to the handling of the pandemic. After all, we're obsessed by the death toll...but no one talks about the dead.

On what’s happening in the US: “There was no plan, because no one wants to talk about death.”
We knew the virus was deadly, but there IS no plan. Seeing that mass grave in a potter's field outside NYC, seeing the mass burials -- that stays in the psyche.

On the call for funeral directors to go to NYC: “They’re talking about people getting sick, they’re talking about masks and ventilators, but no one actually wants to talk about the dead – what is being done with the bodies and who is going to take care of them.”

My heart aches for the families who aren't bedside when their loved ones pass away. My heart aches for the nurses who try to comfort & share messages in the midst of their work & emotional overload. My heart aches for the funeral directors who know how essential their service is.