LONDON – Funeral director Hasina Zaman recently helped a family say goodbye to a young man in his 30s who had died from COVID-19, on the same day she was planning a service for a husband and wife, both also lost to the virus.
Since the pandemic struck, Zaman's phone has rarely stopped ringing, with bereaved people seeking help that she is not always able to provide. “Every week I think I don’t have what it takes,” said Zaman, whose company Compassionate Funerals serves a multicultural, multi-faith community in east London.
The small firm normally arranges about five funerals a week, but COVID-19 has driven the number as high as 20. “We just do it,” Zaman said. “Literally just hands-on approach and just go for it and do it.