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…