Who’s going to stop these funerals in Chester during coronavirus?

In today’s Delaware County Daily Times there’s an article on how a couple county funeral homes are now offering virtual funerals so the people besides the 10 in attendance can view the service on FacebookLive or YouTube Live. Needless to say, these are white funeral homes. I don’t see that as an option that would satisfy too many Black families based on how we do funerals. 

When I got word of Chester police officer Brownelle Lee passing from a city worker, the first thing he told me was there would be no funeral. Her funeral would have been bonkers. There’s no church in the city that could hold the number of people who would fight to get a seat at that service. Hopefully, there will be a memorial after the pandemic passes. 

In the meantime, let’s chill with the funerals in Chester. I know it’s hard, but it’s for everyone’s safety and peace of mind. And the tradition of visiting the family home after a death has to stop, too. Right now, we don’t need homes full of people coming in an out sitting around for hours comforting the family and giving condolences. A phone call, a card, sending food or a gift can serve the same purpose without being in contact with a lot of people.

This is even hard to write because this is so much a part of our culture. 

But it has to stop for now. 

(I made a few small edits to the original posting of this story after a ton of backlash – see the comment section – from people associating the post directly to the original feature photo, even though I made mention of a totally different funeral from earlier that week. I used a photo where no one could be identified, but if you were at the funeral the photo came from, I didn’t consider you could identify yourself. I apologize for the hurt and harm that cause anyone who made that association and please understand I simply wanted to show a large crowd at a funeral. In hindsight, a generic photo, as seen here, should have been used in the first place. 

Also, Officer Brownelle Lee did have a public viewing under very controlled conditions and a private funeral).