While doctors and nurses do all they can to fight the onslaught of Covid-19, many are still losing their lives to this deadly virus daily. Here, an entirely new group of frontline ‘heroes’ step in – the undertakers. Often forgotten, those who escort individuals to their final destination are under immense strain. The pandemic has skyrocketed demand for their services, but this has left the profession facing issues – with many dying of Covid-19 themselves. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Vice President of the National Funeral Directors Association, Lawrence Konyana, has said ‘the union is still compiling the total number of undertakers who have contracted Covid-19 and died, with many parlors too busy to respond to requests’. Below, Gabriele Steinhauser and Gulshan Khan of The Wall Street Journal document the turmoil that funeral parlour workers, undertakers and morticians face on a daily basis in South Africa.