Long-Distance Grief

It’s always hard to live overseas when there’s a crisis back home, but COVID-19 has created the worst kind of heartache for far too many.

- Melinda Murphy

I usually love living abroad – and I especially love living in Singapore. But not now, not today. You see, my sweet father-in-law died in the United States yesterday and we couldn’t go back to say goodbye. Nor can we hold a traditional funeral with everybody under lockdown.

COVID-19 didn’t kill this dear family member of mine, but it has certainly changed the way we mourn him. I suspect there will be many more of these sad stories with people losing loved ones back home, many to the virus or perhaps just other natural deaths. And what if somebody dies here?

In some ways, Flying Home specialises in long-distance grief. For years now, they’ve worked to repatriate people who have died in Singapore so they can return home for burials and funerals with their loved ones. The world’s current situation has changed this to some degree. For example, if a person here dies of COVID-19, they can only be cremated to return home at a later date, and funerals back home are often delayed.