The “Ice Palace” or “Palacio de Hielo,” a lively and merry place for local ice skaters, now housed the mounting bodies that had succumbed to the virus.
Spain was in the thick of it. The small country already surpassed China in number of deaths from the disease: 3,647. Only its nearby neighbor, Italy, had more deaths. The Spanish morgues were overrun- they didn’t have the capacity to hold all of the dead bodies, and there was no place for them to go.
She imagined what that must be like. Did they even have enough coffins? Were they even using boxes of some sort? Or where the bodies just stacked up in body bags? Many of these people probably died alone and in isolation. They say it feels like drowning outside of water. Gasping for whatever air the lungs could strain to breathe in, while the chest burned. A simple speck of dust could spark an extremely painful cough. Health officials described what happens in the lungs, as a result of the extreme pneumonia, being like “ground glass.” That’s what the shredded lungs looked like in the x-rays.
What were their last breaths like?
And it wasn’t just older people anymore. Younger people were not making up a significant portion of the dead.
A nurse had committed suicide in Italy after being infected, for fear she would spread it to others. They said this was not an isolated incident.
These newly dead, did they know where they were? Were they confused to see bleachers and an empty ice-skate-rental-stand, instead of their friends and family at the morgue with clean and orderly mortuary cold chambers? Were they confused at the absence of a funeral home? Were they congregating together, a spirit party, trying to figure out what was going on?
Would they stay?
She wondered how anyone would be able to skate, laugh, and enjoy a fun-filled afternoon in a space where the dead had lain, cold and alone.
Would they put up a plaque in their memory years from now?
In New York a big rig truck was reportedly now placed outside of one hospital to store the dead.
Where would her country store the mountains of the dead?
Spain was in the thick of it. The small country already surpassed China in number of deaths from the disease: 3,647. Only its nearby neighbor, Italy, had more deaths. The Spanish morgues were overrun- they didn’t have the capacity to hold all of the dead bodies, and there was no place for them to go.
She imagined what that must be like. Did they even have enough coffins? Were they even using boxes of some sort? Or where the bodies just stacked up in body bags? Many of these people probably died alone and in isolation. They say it feels like drowning outside of water. Gasping for whatever air the lungs could strain to breathe in, while the chest burned. A simple speck of dust could spark an extremely painful cough. Health officials described what happens in the lungs, as a result of the extreme pneumonia, being like “ground glass.” That’s what the shredded lungs looked like in the x-rays.
What were their last breaths like?
And it wasn’t just older people anymore. Younger people were not making up a significant portion of the dead.
A nurse had committed suicide in Italy after being infected, for fear she would spread it to others. They said this was not an isolated incident.
These newly dead, did they know where they were? Were they confused to see bleachers and an empty ice-skate-rental-stand, instead of their friends and family at the morgue with clean and orderly mortuary cold chambers? Were they confused at the absence of a funeral home? Were they congregating together, a spirit party, trying to figure out what was going on?
Would they stay?
She wondered how anyone would be able to skate, laugh, and enjoy a fun-filled afternoon in a space where the dead had lain, cold and alone.
Would they put up a plaque in their memory years from now?
In New York a big rig truck was reportedly now placed outside of one hospital to store the dead.
Where would her country store the mountains of the dead?
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