Prioritize funerals

These two recent newspaper headlines are disturbing: “Governor deems marijuana an emergency product” and “Absence of funerals will leave wounds of grief gaping open.”

Are we truly, in this quarantine season, saying a trip to a local marijuana dispensary is vital but gathering to memorialize and bury a loved one is not? My precious mother-in-law died Sunday. While the funeral home did their best to support us, unfortunately the governor’s mandate prohibited our gathering to share stories, weep, pray and express the faith tradition which supports us in this time of loss.

Grief is no laughing matter, and denying mourners the rituals of funeral and graveside attendance throws the grief process off kilter. These “gaping wounds” won’t just go away.

I wonder, if the governor had sought the full counsel of mental health and spiritual care providers in this matter, he might have made a wiser choice, one which would serve the people of his state better in the long run? This is not a marijuana issue — a (clearly legal but largely statistically) recreational product at the local dispensary level — but rather an issue of prioritizing healing care for the long run. Medical marijuana can be accessed online. Funerals are time-driven and cannot.

I ache for the denied mourners and hope the governor will, in the future, seek a full counsel when making these difficult calls.

Peggy Crooks

Spokane