The COVID-19 Pandemic started five years ago. In March 2020, most of the United States shut down. Initial findings from Europe and Asia indicated that the disease was harder on people who were obese, Diabetics, and those who lacked Vitamin D. When I learned this, it seemed as if my community, Black People, were going to suffer the most. Ernestine Mann, a native Atlantan, graduate of B. T. Washington High School and Spelman College, was the 32nd person to die from COVID-19 in the state of Georgia. She was a resident of Arbor Terrace Senior Living Center on Cascade. As with most health challenges, seniors were adversely impacted. Karla McKinny joins us this morning to discuss her family and the impact the pandemic had on hers and many families.
I asked McKinney to share her thoughts on the pandemic that shut down our country five years ago. She shares that like most people, she didn’t realize the impact of the pandemic when it started. McKinney explains that her mother had a long life that spanned Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement.
In March 2020, when the shutdown occurred, McKinney provided a day-by-day account of what happened in her mother’s senior center. She reminds us of visiting people outdoors through windows. On March 25th, her mother began to experience COVID-19 symptoms. Due to the shutdown down there wasn’t a memorial service at the time. She remembers the eerie isolation of the time.
McKinney discusses how she became an accidental filmmaker when she began planning a memorial for her mother. The Historic Goodbye: Losing a Loved One During a Pandemic is the movie that resulted. She gathered information from community leaders, her Spelman classmates, and sorority sisters. Mann worked as a teacher and touched the lives of many students. The movie is streaming on Amazon.
On November 1st, McKinney will host The Faithful Day of Remembrance at Impact Church from 9:00AM - 1:00 PM. They will screen the movie and host a “service of lament” for the lives lost during the pandemic. To register or for more information.