Die alone

Being buried or cremated without the last farewell of one's closest loved ones was one of the tragedies in the tragedy of this Covid emergency

Italy entered a total lockdown in early March. Since then and for nearly two months, people 'died alone'. Only a few family members were allowed to attend the funeral and subsequent burial of loved ones. It was however complicated for those who lived out of town to move towards the cemetery. The dead from Covid were buried in special areas within the cemeteries following strict protocols. At the end of March the number of deaths from Covid, concentrated in northern Italy, was so high that the Lombard mortuaries were unable to house all the coffins. The army was used to sort them to other regions in order to perform a quick cremation. The Florentine crematorium was one of those structures where a large number of coffins were brought. Columns of military trucks escorted by carabinieri cars.

I felt embarrassed because, as a photographer with an assignment from the Municipality of Florence, I could attend the funerals and burials, I who had been nobody for the deceased. While friends or loved ones were forbidden to go. This too was the tragedy of Covid.