Status: 04/18/2021 5:29 p.m.
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The lonely death in the pandemic, the despair of the relatives. At the funeral service for the corona dead, the Federal President puts them in the spotlight. But it can only be a temporary commemoration.
From Kai Clement,
ARD capital studio
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It is the memories of the bereaved that make the memory so powerful. Merciless and sad, bitter and desperate. “He called me again from the intensive care unit. ‘I’m going to be put into an artificial coma and ventilated. Don’t worry, I’m in the best of hands. You can pick me up again soon. I’m looking forward to seeing you.” That was our last conversation. “Anita Schedel remembers her husband Hannes. He died at the age of 59.” I still have images of the lonely hospital corridor today. From the flashing and beeping devices, the hoses and machines. And right in the middle: my Hannes “.
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Kai Clement
ARD capital studio
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Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier already knows the widow from a meeting with bereaved relatives at the beginning of last month. The lonely death in the pandemic, the despair of the relatives: he puts all of this at the center of his speech. “We think of everyone who at the moment of death cannot hear a familiar voice or see a familiar face. Who had to die without a last tender word, one last loving look, one last handshake,” said Steinmeier.
“That was just terrible”
Finja Wilkens lost her father – he was 53 years old. “We understand the measures in medical facilities, no question about it, and we are also grateful to have been there to say goodbye. But only to be allowed to be on the deathbed to end the life-support measures and not to be with him in two months beforehand was just terrible. Not Covid-19, but blood cancer was the cause of death. But that was also dying under the conditions of the pandemic. “My dad always said he was like a cat. He has seven lives. Seven lives that want to be lived. We would have loved to have believed him and wished it would come true “.
The Federal President paid tribute to doctors and nurses with their work, sometimes “to the point of complete exhaustion and not infrequently beyond. We are tired of the burden of the pandemic and we are sore in the fight about the right path,” says Steinmeier. Today, so Steinmeier’s request, it should not be about pointing blame in politics, but about humanity, compassion and the way out of the pandemic. “We will be close again as people – and united as a society”.
In the middle of the third wave
But the country is still in the middle of the third wave. The commemoration can only be temporary. The heads of state from the Chancellor to the President of the Bundestag accompanied it and set up candles together with the bereaved. Among them is Esrin Korff Avunc, who remembers her father. “Suddenly he paused for a moment and looked at me and said: Esrin, I love you.”
Accompanied by strings, the portraits of 120 people from all over Germany who died in the pandemic were shown at the end. “We see the wounds that the pandemic has inflicted. We remember the deceased. And we feel for the living who mourn them,” said Steinmeier.
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