In its cruel aftermath, the disease that brought this barrage of death alters rituals of the grieving process. Families say goodbye by video, or in a brief moment at a hospital bed while dressed in personal protective equipment. Funerals are small and distanced.
Most people who contract COVID-19 will survive, and age and specific underlying conditions play a role in who is most likely to die. But for each death, there s a web of family and friends left mourning.
Sharing these losses is difficult for many of the bereaved; it can be therapeutic, though a way to say goodbye, to honor and celebrate the people they loved.
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For almost 10 years, Walden Grove High School has felt a comforting sense of safety and kindness under the watchful eye of Raul âRalphâ Alvarado, a campus monitor.
Today, the entrance to the school office is lined with messages of love and loss. Alvarado, 53, passed away from COVID-19 on Thursday after more than a week on a ventilator in a Phoenix hospital.
He is survived by his wife, Rosie, son, Adrian, and daughters Danielle and Alecia.