Amidst a devastating pandemic with a rising death toll, the Los Angeles Times shares stories of human kindness and grief in an article that features an interview with Najuma Smith-Pollard, Program Manager of the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement. Smith-Pollard reflects on wrestling with loss and ways communities have had to react and adapt:
And, like so many of the death notices that now fill the obituary pages, many of the tributes end with the same bleak reality — a canceled funeral, a memorial postponed to some uncertain future time. Often, the digital tributes offer the only forum where people can gather and grieve.
“It’s a way of creating a community without being communal,” Smith-Pollard said.
Although grief is a profoundly personal thing, she said, the ability to tell a loved one’s story — and to reflect on his or her acts of kindness, goodness or charity — can be incredibly meaningful.
“They’re part of the greater story of the lives lost in this pandemic, and that’s important. It is cathartic. And it’s healing, it’s very healing.”
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