Funeral Costs are Driving Families Hit by COVID-19 to Desperate Measures

Before they entered the emergency room in San Antonio in late September, Randy Hinojosa turned to his wife of 26 years and assured her that they’d both get better and see each other again. “I said, ‘We came together. We leave together,” he recalls. Hinojosa recovered from his bout of COVID-19, but his wife did not. Five weeks later, on Oct. 25, Elisa Hinojosa died of the disease. Faced with a $15,000 bill for funeral expenses, Hinojosa, 52, paid it without hesitating, even though his own four-day hospital stay with the virus had set him back $5,000 and the pandemic had hurt his business as a self-employed contractor. “I knew what I had to do as her husband and as her best friend,” he says. “I said I don’t care if I have a penny to my name. I’m going to make sure she has something nice that she deserves.” When their three children were concerned that he was depleting his savings, Hinojosa turned to GoFundMe, where 114 people donated more than $9,000. “I didn’t even want to ask anybody for money,” he says, breaking down in tears. “I had this pride that I could do this.” <strong>“You can’t die these days because it’s too expensive.”</strong>  Courtesy of Hinojosa FamilyRandy Hinojosa and his late wife Elisa are pictured, top left, at their wedding in 2003. The two met 26 years ago. They share three children, including a 23-year-old son and two daug...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 feature Source Type: news