Also Problems Post Mortem

Also Problems Post Mortem / Rebeca Monzo
Posted on February 1, 2016

Rebeca Monzo, 1 February 2016 — As if there weren't enough problems
surviving in this country, even after death you continue to confront
problems, only they fall on the friends and family members of the
deceased. Hence, that old and well-known phrase, "The dead to the hole
and the living to the chicken [i.e. dinner table]" no longer applies.

This is a country with an aging population, and as a consequence, deaths
are frequent. Recently there have been several deaths in the area when I
live, some of which I can comment on as a witness. The saddest of all
was a great friend from my childhood who, given her personal
characteristics and physical condition, her death was unthinkable.

This friend appeared to be having a stroke so she was immediately
admitted to the hospital closest to her home, El Fajardo. She was put in
intensive care where she spent several days on an artificial respirator.
When she died on January 26th, complicating the original diagnosis was a
bacterial infection she acquired after she was admitted.

The hospital made the necessary arrangements for the wake, but there
were no funeral homes available in the Plaza district, where she lived.
Some were closed because they were undergoing repairs, and others, like
the National, for being in very poor condition.

Finally, with a little greasing of palms, they managed to find one at
Zapata and Paseo Streets, where the family could hold the wake while
waiting her turn to be cremated, which they were warned could take two
or three days. So, using the same "persuasive methods," they managed to
schedule it for that night. Everything now depended on whether they
could get the only vehicle available to move the coffin to Guanabacoa,
where the crematorium is.

Her family members were told that in two days, maximum, they would get a
call from the funeral home to collect the ashes. One of the
granddaughters, now desperate, commented to me, "Seeing how badly things
work here, who can assure me that when they are delivered they will
really be the ashes of my grandmother."

"May God rest her soul," I told her. I was the only consolation I could
give her.

Source: Also Problems Post Mortem / Rebeca Monzo | Translating Cuba -
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