In an Italian city, obituaries fill the newspaper, but survivors mourn alone

[Orangesapples 1,954]

For anyone that thinks the coronavirus is not a serious threat:

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in-an-italian-city-obituaries-fill-the-newspaper-but-survivors-mourn-alone/ar-BB11gQm4

 

ROME —In the part of Italy hit hardest by the coronavirus, the crematorium has started operating 24 hours a day. Coffins have filled up two hospital morgues, and then a cemetery morgue, and are now being lined up inside a cemetery church. The local newspaper's daily obituary section has grown from two or three pages to 10, sometimes listing more than 150 names, in what the top editor likens to "war bulletins." 

 

By death toll alone, the coronavirus has landed in the northern province of Bergamo with the force of a historic disaster.

But its alarming power goes even further, all but ensuring that death and mourning happen in isolation — a trauma in which everybody must keep to themselves.

 

All across Bergamo, people are being picked up in ambulances, rushed to the hospital and dying in sealed-off wards where even their closest relatives are not allowed. Many funerals are taking place with only a priest and a ­funeral home employee present, while family members face restrictions on gathering, remain in quarantine or are too sick themselves.

 

So many have died that there is a waiting list for burial ancremation.

 

“I think it’s worse than a war,” said Marta Testa, 43, who is in self-quarantine and whose father died Wednesday of the virus at age 85. “Dad is waiting to be buried. And we are here waiting to tell him goodbye.” 

Other countries are only beginning to grapple with the pandemic’s implications and the distance it forces between even the closest people. But in Italy, death by lonely death, its full cost is becoming apparent.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Orangesapples

[Orangesapples 1,954]

Truly one of the the most heart breaking articles I've read recently and a warning for all of us that this could become our reality, too.