How Covid-19 has affected older persons

• Published date: 19 November 2020
• Date: 19 November 2020
• Publication title: Vukani

Members reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had been a challenging time for them, as many lost close friends, family members and neighbours.

Funerals are very important in the primarily Xhosa community of Khayelitsha and those at the meeting indicated that being unable to visit their loved ones while hospitalised or attend the funerals of their loved ones were among the hardest adjustments around lockdown.

There is a belief in Xhosa culture that a person's spirit lives on beyond death and the disruption of the typical cultural and religious process has left older persons feeling that they had not been able to grieve appropriately. Thus, the grandmothers were left with the baggage of unprocessed grief.

Family elders play an important role in Xhosa culture, including practices around death.

This put older persons in a difficult position, knowing that they are high risk, but also feeling a sense of responsibility to participate in funeral practices.

One member explained that despite the risk, as the only elder in his family, he felt obligated to travel to the Eastern Cape to bury several family members during a time when transmission levels of the virus were high. One of the GAPA grandmothers experienced multiple deaths in her family during the pandemic, but couldn't attend the funeral of her son, aunt and brother-in-law in the Eastern Cape because she felt she had to stay at home to respect lockdown restrictions. She felt these losses more deeply because she was unable to mourn and be with family during these hard times.

Other members indicated that they also felt tremendous guilt at not being able to visit the sick or attend the funerals of loved ones. Lockdown regulations regarding funerals also prohibited certain cultural protocols, such as seeing the body of the deceased and requirements that usually long services be kept short.

One of the elderly persons explained that "by 11am it was over - it was like there was no funeral, people were just sitting - this hit me".

Short services left loved ones feeling like they didn't have a funeral at all, since friends and family were denied the opportunity to reminisce about the deceased, which is part of the closure and healing process. Usually there is a long service programme which unpacks who the deceased was; family, neighbours and friends speak and the priest comforts the family with scriptures, and the community sings.

Staff members from Ikamva Labantu and GAPA reported that most of their clients were unable...