“I worry that the psychological impact on these kids is going to be even greater.”Įxperts and advocates fear that the impact of parental death on children is falling by the wayside as policymakers focus solely on preventing and treating Covid - a crucial goal, but one that they argue can’t be pursued in isolation. They didn’t have proper funerals,” Kidman said. They didn’t have neighbors dropping by with food. “They didn’t have friends checking in on them. That’s in relatively normal times - kids who have lost parents to Covid have also had to mourn without a lot of the social supports they’re used to. International research prior to the Covid-19 era has shown that “kids who experience a parental death are more likely to suffer from depression or drop out of school,” said Rachel Kidman, a social epidemiologist who has studied bereaved children. Natasha’s story provides a glimpse at how institutions such as schools, hospitals, and governments have struggled to respond to the needs of children and families left bereft by the pandemic. Across the country, more than 140,000 kids, like Natasha, have lost a parent or other primary or secondary caregiver to Covid. Over the past 20 months, Julian’s death has sent the two of them on an odyssey they never expected - one that, at times, threatened to tear them apart, too.
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The two have faced a series of woes as they adjust to life without Julian Peña, Natasha’s father. Maxine Beltran and Natasha FaceTime with relatives from their apartment. The two have such a strong rapport that when they’re together, it can feel like no one else is in the room.
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Their living room is full of family photos, each with a special story - one, Natasha remembers, is from her seventh birthday, when her mom woke her up by singing a silly song in her ear. On a recent afternoon at their apartment in the Bronx, the two laughed and cried together as Natasha cuddled Cocó, one of her two guinea pigs. Through all those ups and downs, Natasha’s mom has been her rock. “It goes up and down, but it keeps on coming.” Mourning comes in waves for Natasha, Maxine, 34, said. In the weeks and months that followed, Natasha’s grief took many different forms, from nonstop questions about her father’s youth to sorrow and pain at seeing other parents pick up their kids from school. It was time to remove him from the ventilator and let him go.Īfter her father died, the girl cried for four or five days straight, Maxine remembers. And then, one day, they got the news they had been dreading: He was not going to get better.
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One day, a nurse would inform them that Julian was doing better, laughing, making progress. Her mom, Maxine Beltran, remembers the excruciating back-and-forth calls from the ICU.įrom the other end of the phone line, Natasha and Maxine witnessed the terrible ups and downs of the disease as it tore through Julian’s body. His daughter, Natasha Beltran, couldn’t visit him in the hospital, couldn’t hug him or hold his hand.
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Julian Peña was hospitalized with Covid-19 in early 2020, when the pandemic first hit New York City. Part of the Family Issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.