Sadhana Sen
15 May, 2021, 8:30 pm
Pyres burn with loved ones often unable to make that last big hug or say the final goodbye. Picture: SUPPLIED/Sadhana Sen
Alongside the myriad stories of closed borders, unemployment, struggling health systems, surging COVID cases and accompanying increase in poverty, there is another heart-wrenching COVID-19 experience – not being able to be with loved ones in their last days on earth.
This is a Fijian story, but applicable across the globe to diaspora who left their homelands to migrate to greener pastures, for whatever reason: to escape political tyranny, hardship, or lack of opportunity at home; to seek temporary work on some labour mobility scheme; or to follow another loved one.