Bye, Grandfather.

   Yesterday was my grandfather’s funeral. He died on January 03^rd 2021.He had multiple health problems so we don’t really know what killed him. It could be one thing but it could also be something else. So we settled on being multiple stuff all at once. He had diabetes, a tumor behind his eyes and he was constantly having blackouts. The last blackout he had he fell down and hit his head. It made a major cut in his scalp and bleed a lot. That was the last time people saw him awake after that he was immediately taken to the hospital and he doctors put him in a state of comma to treat his wounds.

  Three days later he died. The doctor said he had 2 strokes and when he arrived at the hospital he was almost dead. The only thing that was keeping him alive were the machines&drugs. As soon as they began to take the medicines off he got worse and worse. As if they were watching life leaving his body. I don’t like funerals. I mean, who likes them? I bet, no one. The thing is, I wanted to say bye and I wanted to see him one last time. My siblings decided not to go. They get too emotional and they didn’t want to see him in a coffin. I respect that. Every person grief in their own way.

  I wanted to be there. To give my mother emotional support. She loved my grandfather and he absolutely adored her. She stood by his coffin and talked to him like he was there, some of my uncles and my aunt were either bothered or they thought it was weird but I have no way to know that all I know is that I saw in their faces a lot of stuff. Remorse, anger, sadness and to be honest I didn’t care for that. I was there for my parents and for my Granddad.

  Towards the end of the funeral one of my uncles who’s a pastor wannabe brought a stranger to pray for my grandfather. I respect people’s religion. I do. BUT. My grandfather didn’t like religion, not even a bit. I don’t know. It wasn’t disrespectful but it wasn’t appropriate nonetheless. We just wanted to stay with him for as long as possible and then follow him to his grave, we had only 30 minutes after all due to Covid restrictions. When we were trying to follow the car that was carrying his coffin my mother decided to see where my uncle (her brother) was staying. Unfortunately he weren’t able to find it. Then, we went straight to where they were taking my grandfather. We were a little slow ‘cause I was helping my mother to walk ‘cause she can’t walk on her own just yet. She's waiting to get surgery on her hip. She needs a cartilage replacement. 

  It was so weird to see them burying my grandfather. Next to his grave there were more four open graves. In one of them there was a HUGE bone. The gravedigger told us many things about the Covid-19 burials. He said that when we had the first outbreak of this virus in Brazil, they buried an average of 40 people every day. Also, he said that he had never in 20 years working there buried so many people.

  He told us a story that stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about ever since I heard it. He said that people aren’t taking it as seriously as it should be taken. He tested positive for Covid-19 as well as his workmates, the whole staff of the cemetery got it. But the story was this, once he participating in a burial of a mother and her (adult) sons were insisting on opening up the coffin and when you die of Corona the coffin must be sealed up and never opened. Because the risk of contaminating other people is huge. But they did not care, they insisted so hard that the gravediggers were almost forced to open. They got what they wanted, they opened the coffin and two of her sons gave her a kiss on the cheek. Three weeks later the gravediggers were digging graves for both her sons.

  I'll never forget the great memories of my childhood with my grandfather. Now rest in peace. I love you.

Hugs,

Douglas Migliassi