The Funerals

The funerals serve as the largest indicator of the town’s evolution as a result of the plague. At the beginning services were held in churches as families mourned. It slowly progresses to the point where church services are outlawed – not because of a lack of religion but because they slowed down the burial processes. The burial processes evolved for the sake of efficiency and began to disregard family or emotional ties. The banning of church services was only the beginning; it progressed to such a point that coffins were not longer used for each body. Bodies were crammed into coffins at maximum capacity and upon reaching the cemetery gates the families were told to leave. The families, at this point in the progression of the plague, were no longer able to even be present as their loved one was laid to rest. This was not because of a possible health threat but rather because of the shame of the Prefect. The fact that the bodies were then unloaded from the coffins and carried to be stored in sheds and that the coffins were then sterilized and sent back to the hospital to cart more bodies over was a source of shame and embarrassment. At this point the individuals no longer even received their own graves; they used mass graves to bury the bodies. They did, however, console themselves by separating the mass graves by the sexes. The plague further upped its death toll resulting in desperate measures to be taken; past inhabitants of graves were uprooted and cremated making more room of the new bodies. When space completely ran out in the cemetery a car service was hired to drive the plague victims to the crematory. Families were now notified by the government - they had no idea how their loved ones were treated upon death.