While Sesma lamented, mariachi music cut the silence. “I’d rather sleep than wake up, because it hurts so much not to be here,” said the band in Spanish.
She buried her mother last week in South Los Angeles. But she had to say goodbye in a parking lot.
There, the coffin was placed in a corner, under a pop-up canopy – with flower arrangements and photos around. The chairs were spaced in parking spaces.
It was the only safe space, where people could socially distance themselves during mourning, that Calvary Chapel – located near the Sesma family in southern Los Angeles – had available.
“Waiting to bury her was like torture,” Sesma told CNN. “We were concerned about her appearance.”
She said she feared that her mother’s body would become distorted and start to decompose before she could see her face for the last time.
At the funeral, Sesma got up while praying. Her faith, she said, is the only thing that cheers her up after such a loss.
Sesma’s family hired Covid in December
Sesma said she quit her job as a real estate broker to live with her mother and stepfather because of the coronavirus pandemic.
His mother, a retired train driver, had lung disease. Her stepfather was a handyman, with asthma and diabetes. Her brother lived next door with his young family.
In December, she said everyone hired Covid-19. Her parents became so ill that they had to be admitted to Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in southern Los Angeles.
The state-of-the-art hospital – which is full of patients – is a haven in what has long been a desert for medical care in the heavily black and Latin area of the city.
“Our emergency department was designed to treat 40 to 45,000 patients a year. In 2019 – before Covid – we served 110,000 patients a year,” said the hospital’s CEO, Dr. Elaine Batchlor. “This is largely due to the lack of access to quality care in the community.”
Now, with the coronavirus, there are even more patients everywhere, she said.
Los Angeles reported 12,617 new cases on Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the county to 932,697, while the county approaches the bleak 1 million cases. An additional 137 new deaths were reported, increasing the total number of deaths to 12,387.
‘Don’t let this be you’
The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital typically has 135 beds, but is now treating more than 200 people internally, according to Batchlor. More than 60% are patients with coronavirus.
Batchlor said the hospital receives some of the sickest patients in the city and the state.
“Diabetes is three times more prevalent here than in the rest of California. Mortality is 72% higher. Life expectancy is 10 years less here than in the rest of the state,” said Batchlor. “All of this is related to the fact that it is a community with few resources and services.”
And that means that what happened to the Sesma family tends to be the norm, not the exception.
“We were unfortunate to see this disease spread to families and, very often, to take several members of a single family,” said Dr. Jason Prasso, who treated Sesma’s mother and stepfather.
The pain of loss for doctors and nurses falls on your shoulders like an opaque weight that won’t go away. For families, losing someone to Covid comes at a devastating cost.
“We lost my mother and stepfather to the coronavirus,” said Sesma. “Don’t let this be you. If you really love your loved ones, don’t let this be you. Keep taking every precaution, take extra precautions, overdo it if you need to.”