The Art of the Obituary in the Age of COVID-19

'Since the pandemic began, the volume of obituaries and paid death notices in our newspapers have become a powerful reminder of the loss we’re all experiencing right now. In the absence of traditional mourning rituals like funerals, the obituary pages are becoming a communal space for us to grieve together in this moment. For more on what obituaries mean during this pandemic, The Takeaway spoke with Maureen O’Donnell, the obituary writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and a former president of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, and John Pope, a contributing writer for the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate and author of the book, Getting Off at Elysian Fields: Obituaries from the New Orleans Times-Picayune.'