Mortuary Science Major Perspective on COVID-19 Pandemic

The state of Wisconsin has broken COVID-19 records since the beginning of the global pandemic that began in February. According to the website of Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Wisconsin currently is ranked the third biggest hotspot in the United States for COVID-19 cases, with Milwaukee County showing 37,706 positive cases currently. 

Records of COVID-19 have continued to rise through the month of October resulting in higher numbers of hospitalization and fatalities.

Holly Craven, a Mortuary Science major has worked for a Milwaukee funeral home in the midst of COVID-19 global pandemic. Mortuary Science is the study of deceased bodies, how they are prepared, the process of decay, and burial methods. 

Craven began working at the funeral home in the Spring of 2019.

“I wanted to help people and it was a unique intersection of caregiving and forensics that I felt my empathy could be applied to,” said Craven.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, there have been approximately 1,705 COVID-19 related deaths within the state of Wisconsin.

When working within the funeral home, nothing prepared Craven for the rising number in COVID related fatalities she would have to take on. 

“I’ve dealt with approximately 80 to 90 Covid positive confirmed cases myself,” Craven said. “I worked in the proximity of 265 decedents that were suspected of Covid or Covid positive.”

Most COVID related deaths that Craven accompanied when picking up ranged from middle age to elderly individuals.

“In my experience there are a majority of elderly people passing away from this,” Craven said. “I saw many middle-aged people about ages 35 to 50 who had very minor ailments who died incredibly prematurely.” 

Craven articulated how she believes COVID numbers have continued to rise throughout the months.

“I think Wisconsin has done fairly poorly handling COVID-19,” Craven said. “From my point of view Covid in this State has kind of transformed into a cautionary tale for other states who think they’re safe and think this doesn’t concern them because they’re not a massive metropolitan hub.”  

She continued with, “A swing state like Wisconsin especially during a contentious election year takes something like this and makes it a polarizing issue, where I really don’t think it should be a matter of Democrat versus Republican. This should be an all hands on deck everybody working together to solve this problem for all of us.”

In Craven’s field of work, she has dedicated countless hours preparing the deceased and arranging funerals for families attempting to comprehend the pandemic and its effects. 

“I have sat in on arrangements where someone was diagnosed with COVID and then three days later, they’re dead,” Craven said. “It’s just such a whiplash to the family. The body breaks down so quickly.” 

Craven spoke sorrowfully about her experiences watching families having to go through the process of saying goodbye to their loved ones affected. 

“The most saddening part has definitely been the abruptness of this disease,” said Craven. “It doesn’t give families time to expect death or to grieve. You’re left with nothing but an empty space where no person wins.”

Through working directly within the battlefield of the pandemic, Craven expressed how tolling it was for her to see how nonchalant many of the citizen’s of the United States have been treating coronavirus. 

“I have had to come to terms with a loss of faith in humanity, along with the general selflessness of mankind in a very startling way.” Craven said. “It really gets to you when you’re sacrificing so much by leaving your family in the middle of the night to go expose yourself to who knows what.”

Craven had to step down from her position within the funeral home for her own mental health. She vocalized how taxing the career became due to the pandemic. 

“I had to step away this year from my professional career because I lost sight of why I got into it in the first place,” Craven said. “I no longer had a drive to help people, I didn’t feel like most of them deserved it because I saw so many people just disparaging and straight up denying what I was going through on a daily basis.”

Though Craven has taken a step back from her career path, she plans to continue down the path of a future career within mortuary science down the road.

Craven believes that though the COVID-19 pandemic has weighed heavy on her mental health and career path, she deems it was her obligation and finds peace knowing she contributed all of her knowledge and comfort.  

“It was incredibly stressful but at the same time I felt a sense of duty,” Craven said. “On one hand nobody knows the long-term effects and the ramifications of exposure, but at the same time I have this unique skill set that I couldn’t let this go to waste in such a dark hour.”