{"id":1574,"date":"2021-05-04T14:30:14","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T14:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/?p=1574"},"modified":"2023-05-25T12:35:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T12:35:42","slug":"covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Covid was different’ – QCity Metro interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Palmer Dupree, as told to QCity Metro Staff Writers<\/em><\/p>\n

As a licensed funeral director, I\u2019ve faced many complicated and unusual situations. Covid was different.<\/p>\n

Dealing with a pandemic was very unusual, something that we were never taught in school. \u00a0The first challenge was preparing ourselves to remain safe. At that time, we knew it was airborne, but weren\u2019t certain how long the virus might be viable. I mean, we\u2019ve always had PPE (personal protective equipment), but I never had to use it to that extent, basically, from head to toe.<\/p>\n

It was late March or early April when we received our first Covid patient. Then businesses started to shut down and we were starting to get more. A lot of them were coming directly from nursing homes. We knew it was going to get bad.<\/p>\n

A Covid death was an embarrassment for some families. They didn\u2019t want anyone to know that a loved one had died from\u00a0Covid. Some had tried to instruct the doctor not to write that on the death certificate, but doctors have to do what they have to do \u2014 if it\u2019s Covid, they\u2019ve got to write it on there.<\/p>\n

Out of concern for the safety of our staff, older employees and those with health concerns were pulled back. That left about five to six staff members to handle everything.<\/p>\n

A personal loss<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I had an employee who died from Covid. That really hit me hard. Even though we had\u00a0been dealing with it, to know somebody personally\u2026<\/p>\n

I had to take a step back. Dealing with a child\u2019s death has always been the hardest part of my\u00a0work, but dealing with someone you know pulls you in that same direction. You just go to your faith and you just stay in your faith, stay prayed up, \u201cGod, deliver me and give me the things I need to get through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

We in the funeral business weren\u2019t always considered essential frontline workers. They didn\u2019t look at us in the same way they did the doctors, the nurses and EMT techs. We\u2019ve always considered ourselves just as important because when someone passes, they have to call us.<\/p>\n

The loss of traditions took a big toll on the staff as well as on the families we were serving. Our tradition is for family and friends to gather after the passing of a loved one. It\u2019s important to obtaining closure. Instead, we were limited as to the number of people who could be in attendance at funerals. As churches shut down, graveside services, cremations and live-streaming services became the norm.<\/p>\n

We tried to get everyone to understand that it wasn\u2019t the funeral home; it was just being cautious and based on the CDC guidelines. We don\u2019t know where this disease is. We don\u2019t know who has it and who does not. Once it was really publicized, families began to understand that they could not do what they normally would do, including those touchy hugs with one another.<\/p>\n

The hardest day<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most difficult day for me was probably in late December or early January. We did four Covid removals,\u00a0and that was a very hard day.\u00a0Every time the phone rang, it was a Covid call. You\u2019re prepared for one, but then you\u2019ve got to get prepared again for the next one. We\u2019d get two Covid calls at one time, from two different facilities. You\u2019re on one call and now you\u2019ve got to go to another one. You\u2019re fully dressed in our PPE, and now you\u2019ve got to re-dress and go to the next call. It was a mind thing, because you really have to get your mind into what you are getting ready to do.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re entering into April, I\u2019ve seen our numbers start to go down, slightly. Even so, we as a people have got to be cautious. We really have to take Covid seriously. I think a lot of people don\u2019t take it seriously until it actually hits someone they know. And then they start to change and see things a little differently.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/qcitymetro.com\/story\/palmer-dupree\/?fbclid=IwAR0xkIEUTnDFg6pBbfZHqj6cm59MQyK8mOOF-wkHPh4PXjZd02WB4GsFmvA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Palmer Dupree, as told to QCity Metro Staff Writers As a licensed funeral director, I\u2019ve faced many complicated and unusual situations. Covid was different. Dealing with a pandemic was very unusual, something that we were never taught in school. \u00a0The first challenge was preparing ourselves to remain safe. At that time, we knew it… Continue reading ‘Covid was different’ – QCity Metro interview<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Covid was different' - QCity Metro interview - Long and Son Mortuary Inc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"graveside services, cremations, live-streaming services, funerals\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Covid was different' - QCity Metro interview - Long and Son Mortuary Inc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"graveside services, cremations, live-streaming services, funerals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long and Son Mortuary Inc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-04T14:30:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-25T12:35:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/covid-19-danger.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"608\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Trevino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Trevino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Trevino\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/#\/schema\/person\/686d03a9883f5ff0b9661e09d5ea10aa\"},\"headline\":\"‘Covid was different’ – QCity Metro interview\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-04T14:30:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-25T12:35:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/\"},\"wordCount\":724,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/covid-19-danger.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/longandsonmortuary.com\/covid-was-different-qcity-metro-interview\/\",\"name\":\"'Covid was different' - 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