Death and Grief During a Pandemic

Weathering the Intense Emotions of Grief

Grief often comes with powerful, unpredictable emotional shifts that can be painful to experience. While it’s important to find ways to sit with these feelings, to acknowledge the pain of grief and accept loss, it’s also necessary to find ways to ease and manage the pain. There are several simple activities that you can explore to help.

Maureen – Funeral during the pandemic

Maureen talks about funeral arrangements during a pandemic

Kim – Checking in is very important

Kim explains why it is so important to check in and keep in touch with people who have lost

Zoreena – Burnout and counseling

Zoreena talks about her father’s decline in a nursing home during COVID

Christian – My process in grieving

Christian explains his grieving process and how it’s important to let people in, the power of community, and having a team that makes him feel loved and cared for

Zoreena – Tribute

Zoreena talks about tributes, family, pulling together and not being able to have a funeral

Zoreena – My Story

Zoreena talks about COVID and the loss of her father and a cousin

Jean – Helping your children through grief

Jean discusses how helping her children through grief also helped her

Nicole – Stigma Surrounding Drug Use

Nicole discusses how the stigma around drug use has an impact on how people feel able to grieve when those in their community are lost.

Andrea – My Story

Andrea shares her story of losing her husband during a pandemic

Karyn and Aidan – Supporting each other

Karyn and Aidan talk about how they supported each other and how they coped with John being hospitalized

Beauty found at the edges: a portrait of community support

I’d sent a text saying “Hello friends, I’m putting out a call for flowers. I went to public school with Kory, the young man who died in downtown Cobourg this week, and though I hadn’t seen him in recent years, I feel the loss of him on a community level, as I imagine you do, too. Some of Kory’s people are gathering tonight in vigil at the bank where he died, and I’m gathering flowers from those of us who have gardens to share with this grieving community. Do you have some blooms in your garden that you’d be willing to share?”