The Virus Is Taking Away Our Homegoings

Services, repasts, and second lines are empty since the ’rona stripped our funeral traditions

Paulbearers carry the casket during a jazz funeral held for local bass drummer Lionel Batiste July 20, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

In December 2020, my grandmother would have turned 90 years old. From the dawn of this new year, my family had already started working on her birthday party. By March, we had picked a venue and a caterer and were having a hard time narrowing down the guest list to 100 people.

But due to Covid-19, we went from planning a big birthday party to planning her funeral. And that guest list? We could barely convince 10 people to attend.

My family and I would have loved to send off our beloved Mother Minnie Head in a big beautiful way. This virus has taken that from us. A titan of Detroit’s New Testament Church of God in Christ, her pre-Covid-19 homegoing service would have brought out hundreds of people. It would have been magnificent, spirit-filled, and anchored by the serenade of a full gospel choir. Instead, my grandmother was laid to rest by a handful of her grandchildren wearing masks and gloves in an empty church.

My family is not unusual. Covid-19 has changed the way we send our loved ones home. A funeral is one thing; a homegoing — well, that’s something else. In the Black community, the tradition of laying a loved one to rest is filled with…