As of today, over 131,000 people have died just in the United States of COVID. Most people have been touched in some way by these deaths. We have not appropriately mourned these losses.

On May 24th, the New York Times published the names of 1,000 people on the front page. This was only a fraction of the thousands who have died. On May 25th, George Floyd was murdered by a Minnesota Police officer. Anger and rage spilled over into the streets as it should be.

This past winter as the corona virus began, I spent some time in Jackson Medical Center. The patients that were filling our hospital beds were People of color, Caucasian, rich and poor. The virus doesn’t discriminate. As the hospital beds filled, the hospital staff had to deal with their own fears. Would they be able to make one more day without being infected by the virus? Would they be able to come home to their children or elderly vulnerable parents without infecting them?

A 30 year veteran Surgical Intensive Care Unit died suddenly of COVID having spent her shift in the unit.

The Hospital closed it’s doors to visitors. I saw a teenage boy walk through the ER without his mom. She stood outside praying that he would be alright. I watched people struggling to breathe as they were in hospital beds unable to have loved ones near them.

Societal ills happen even in the midst of a pandemic. A young man caught in a gunfight in Liberty City bleeds in the Trauma Center alone. A young woman is in hospital bed with a gunshot. Her father must take her off of life support. He must surround his daughter with cell phones so they can say goodbye to her. A young man must face his second liver transplant away from his family.

There is meme of someone walking with a filled up coffee cup. Someone bumps into her and she becomes angry. In another situation, calm might spill out. We can uncover grief through anger. Please contact me if I can help you heal your anger and grief at crlerner09@gmail.com