Jan 12, 2021
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The phone rang over the gurgle of embalming fluid as Geoff Burke wearily eyed the corpse of the woman on the gurney. Another victim of the coronavirus, she’d have to wait. On the phone, a nurse delivered the news: body pickup needed.
Passing the cremation oven, still hot from the morning’s use, Burke changed from his plastic embalming apron to a necktie and collared shirt as Sunday football commentators bantered on the television. As he prepared the hearse outside, his phone rang again. Second body pickup needed at a nursing home outside Lewistown. Coronavirus again.