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The Conversation: Funerals and grief in a pandemic

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Neima Candy and Lianna Champ

26/04/2021 GMT

Funerals and grief in a pandemic

BBC World Service - The Conversation, Funerals and grief in a pandemic

What happens to grief when our usual rituals around death and mourning are disrupted?

A funeral director from the UK and a public health nurse from Liberia talk to Kim Chakanetsa about the impact of the Ebola crisis and Covid-19 on the way people mourn.

The extraordinary measures put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ebola crisis placed restrictions on much of people’s lives, including the rituals and ceremony around death. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women whose work has supported grieving families during a time of crisis.  

Lianna Champ is a British funeral director and author of How to Grieve Like a Champ. She’s based in Lancashire, one of the areas worst hit by Covid-19. She always knew she was going to be a funeral director and she started helping out at the local funeral home at 16. She talks about how Covid-19 has transformed funerals, mourning and grief, and why the rituals of death are crucial to our ability to grieve healthily.

Neima Candy is a Liberian public health nurse who coordinated the Red Cross response to the Ebola crisis. She was in charge of organising burial teams made up of volunteers and helped write guidelines for ‘safe and dignified’ funerals that would bring closure to the families and at the same time avoid further spread of the disease. 

IMAGE DETAILS
Left: Neima Candy [courtesy Neima Candy]
Right: Lianna Champ [credit Phil Garlington]

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