Weeping Bitterly: Death and Grief in the Baldwin Library’s Collection

Abstract

In autumn 2021, months after the vaccine had proven to be effective in combating the novel coronavirus outbreak and as the Delta variant was picking up speed, I found myself thinking about the catastrophic loss our nation had experienced and was continuing to endure. Mostly, though, my attention kept turning to the losses weathered by our nation’s children. I thought of the grieving families and of the children who suddenly found themselves orphans.

The losses were indeed calamitous—an estimated two hundred thousand children in this country are now orphans because of the coronavirus. In fact, as of 2022, the pandemic alone was responsible for a little less than a tenth of all orphans under the age of 18.1 As new variants emerge and as both resistance to and lack of access to vaccines continue to be societal barriers, that number will likely grow.