Dear editor,
Both of my parents’ funerals, visitations and memorials were heartbreaking. The planning was uniquely different because the COVID-19 outbreak was finally acknowledged as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. Cases worldwide had been detected before this in 2019.
The news media or health organizations did not need to inform Tom and Lisa Gale and colleagues of Farrell Holland Gale (FHG) Funeral Home. They were living it night and day. Supporting, caring, helping us that had watched people we loved die of something that was controversial and confusing. As we grieved, they were held or hands and hearts until we knew our mom, dad, aunt, grandpa, were being treated with great respect and care. The professionalism quietly displayed at FHG was obvious, but it was the less obvious many of us needed them the most. Picking items for our loved one to wear, a casket, a memorial marker, donations to a charity, payment for this “scary, you pretended it would never happen“, death certificates, legal documents, who would carry the person to their resting place: decisions no one wants to make and the seamless, caring, empathetic process made it bearable. Being trusted, having a personal touch, holding us up when perhaps they were just as if not more exhausted.
I have not observed the outpouring of well-deserved love and gratefulness that was given to medical professionals, caretakers, and others who worked when no one else could.
I know I owe them many thank yous, many you rocks, hugs, and an acknowledgement that their career and organization is always challenging, heartbreaking and exhausting; multiply this by hundreds of thousands deaths caused by COVID-19 and related complications forced them to sleep less, work more, support families and loved ones through a COVID-19 protocol that made visitations and funerals near impossible.
A special thank you Mark and Lisa. You are gifts from God. This ugly process was softened from your incredible understanding, care and patience. I understand we are one family lost our patriarch and matriarch in one year’s time.
When I was lost and helpless with grief and trust issues were brights lights.
Please, as we still deal with COVID-19 outbreaks, remember courageous amazing rockstars like the people at Farrell Holland Gale Funeral Home.
