>>Stacy Brick, The New York Times Published: 13 Dec 2020 05:51 PM BdST Updated: 13 Dec 2020 05:51 PM BdST Todd and Lisanne Trcka, with their three children in suburban San Antonio, Texas, watching TV, June 29, 2006. The New York Times There’s no way to sugarcoat it: The pandemic has plunged the world into a crisis of grief. It has caused the deaths of more than 290,000 people in the United States, many of them grandparents and parents. In New York state alone, 4,200 children lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19 between March and July, according to a study from the United Hospital Fund. (These were the most recent figures available on parental death from COVID.)