In Spain, death is generally avoided as a topic of conversation. Even mild gallows humor is frowned upon. People prefer not to talk about death and cautiously tiptoe around any term related to la muerte. It is as though if the Grim Reaper is mentioned, this will cause him to appear. Fortunately, the Spanish language has a variety of euphemisms that can be used to talk around death, and politely refer to it (loss, passing, departure, etc.).
However, death is ubiquitous and inevitable. And when it occurs, one must find a way to come to terms with it. For that purpose, the Spanish culture also has many rituals, which include the wake, mass, burial ceremony, and mourning. They are performed, more for the sake of the living than for the deceased. The dead really do not care how many wreaths were on their coffin. They do not agonize over who attended their funeral, how many rosaries were said in their honor, or whether their remains were interred in a niche or a mausoleum.
However, all of these simple rituals are important because they help the living come to terms with losing a loved one. They allow the family to mourn and finally to let go of the person who has died.
In Spain, three days ago the authorities solemnly informed us that we were on the road to recovery or at least on the long and winding road to a ‘new normal’. However, it seems that in times of coronavirus, such recovery is slow and sometimes may even be a mirage. Yesterday the daily statistics reflected a sharp rise in detected cases of coronavirus as well as a rise in deaths. This reflects something that everyone knows but that few acknowledge. Succinctly put, the government does not know how to count.
The coronavirus dead are legion, and the sheer numbers of dead have deprived families of the solace of familiar rituals and ceremonies. Coronavirus patients generally die alone in intensive care perhaps with a doctor or nurse to hold their hand if they are lucky. Their families are informed by phone. The body is tagged and then taken from the hospital. Since storage has become a problem, the body is delivered to one of the various improvised morgues in town.
These new (overbooked) morgues range from ice-skating rinks in Madrid to a large subterranean parking lot in Barcelona. The bodies are transported there with discretion and secrecy since the government wants to avoid somber pictures of convoys of coffin-loaded military trucks like those in the Italy.
Yesterday, the funeral parlor directors throughout Spain protested because the official numbers reported by the government do not coincide with the actual number of deaths. All over Spain, funeral parlors are working overtime. Although undertakers toil around the clock, they are unable to process all of the bodies that are piling up. It is little wonder that in the resulting chaos, many bodies have been misplaced, and the families are obliged to search for them by phone and computer. Because of the confinement, they cannot drive from one morgue to another seeking their deceased family member. One lady in Madrid had no idea where her father‘s body was until twelve days after his death.
So, people spend years paying insurance for funeral costs so that they will not be a burden to their family. Over time, the amount is enough to pay for 50 funerals as well as their own. So, at the very least, they deserve the one funeral that they have spent their life paying for.
However, in times of coronavirus, not only are coronavirus patients unaccompanied by their families in their final moments, the families are also deprived of the familiar rituals that will help them come to terms with their loss. There can be no wake, no funeral, and in many cases, no (permanent) burial.
The huge number of deaths has literally collapsed the justice system. Since it is no longer possible to incinerate anyone, the family is now offered the possibility of a temporary burial, and then a year or two later when hopefully things have calmed down, the body will be incinerated at no extra cost to the family. If you think about it, it is a real bargain since they will get two burials for the price of one.
This is only natural because in the last month, there have been over 10,000 more deaths than usual. The majority of these are probably unreported coronavirus cases. In Madrid alone, there have been 4000 deaths in elderly care facilities, which have not been recorded as coronavirus because the people were found dead in the nursing home, and no autopsy was performed. Not counting these bodies as coronavirus deaths makes the statistics less alarming.
I have dear friends in the USA who have told me that I am exaggerating. I wish that I were, What they do not seem to realize is that the USA is also on the yellow brick road to Coronavirus Land. The only difference is that they are not as far along as Spain is. More people should be alarmed, and more should care.
In the USA, the majority of those infected live in the poorer sectors of large cities, where there is more overcrowding. Worse yet, those without health insurance and who do not qualify for Medicaid tend to stay away from hospitals as long as they can, thus heightening their risk of infecting others. The most powerful man in the U.S. government has systematically ignored warnings from experts that he himself appointed. The pandemic will not be solved by firing the World Health Organization.
In Spain, the government has made terrible mistakes, many of which I have mentioned in this post and earlier ones. Spain woke up late to reality, but at least the government has finally become aware of the seriousness of the disease and has implemented harsh measures, which all of us are currently suffering.
The brighter side of the dark coin is that Spain, with all its manifest imperfections, does have a national healthcare system, which, even under unbelievable strain, has not collapsed. Even in the extreme circumstances of the pandemic, good medical care has been provided as reflected in the high number of recovered patients. You can ask my eldest son.
Despite the huge expense of two or three weeks of hospital intensive care and recovery, no coronavirus patient or his/her family will go bankrupt simply because they had the misfortune to become ill.
This is made possible by socialized medicine, which certain of my acquaintances in the USA regard as a danger to the civilized world and a harbinger of Communism. Quite rightly, they point out that socialized medicine is not free, and I agree. It most certainly is not.
After 35 years working in Spain, the money subtracted from my salary each month has paid for all of my medical visits, two operations, and four childbirths, among other things. It has also helped to pay for the appendectomies, cancer treatments, kidney transplants, and hip replacements of total strangers.
I will never know whether these strangers were grateful for my contribution. I will never know whether they were “deserving” or if they were playing the system. But, frankly, I do not care. I only know that in times of coronavirus, it is good to have healthcare provided by a National Health System. In times of coronavirus, it is good to have socialized medicine.
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