No visits

We laid my great granny to rest the other day. She was 99 years old and lived life very fully. When I was young, she would make sure that I was a prim and proper little girl who answered every question in the right manner. She taught students for a living before moving to the United States. When she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, she was sent back to the Philippines under the care of my grandfather, her youngest son.

Our memories were very vivid until one day she lost touch of me. She didn't recall who I was, and kept on telling me that I was my mom. Despite the shortcomings of her old age and her dying seven months before reaching a century old, I knew she lived a full life. As the soil was shoveled over her grave, I cried. I felt pain that one of the pillars of our family was saying goodbye, it was going to be a different story without her around.

This November will be different also. The city said that wouldn't allow any visits to the cemeteries come All Soul's and Saint's days. They would only allow funerals and that's it. It is already painful to lose a family member, how much more not being able to visit their remains. Has COVID-19 really taken over our lives or we have failed to live with it? If you were to ask me, there would be better protocols than banning visits on these special days. There are protocols to follow and we could replicate during these days.

Instead of allowing everyone in, why won't the cemetery administration control the number of people coming in and strictly make sure that everything is followed? Or devise a system dividing the cemetery into sections and scheduling when they can visit the cemetery? We have already loosened our protocols with the Modified General Community Quarantine, and going back to such strict measure for the holidays in November feels just so backward. We are supposed to move forward with the response to COVID and not the other way around.

I don't know how my family will deal with this --maybe visit the grave on some other day when it is still allowed-- yet traditions that have been cut with this virus will feel really different. I only hope that the life my great granny has laid out for all of us will be emulated in the next generations to come.

If November is as strict as it is, I wonder what will happen to Christmas. Will there be no jolly days for this season anymore? It seems like instead of us winning over the virus, we are giving in to the perils it has to offer. Feels like a wrong response when there are other solutions in the basket. Maybe a more careful study, one that is backed by science and not some misconception. I pray for the best for the city.