Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19

Mitchel Consky is a journalist with the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, specializing in explorations of loss. In Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19, he presents a collection of interviews with his father, Harvey Consky, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in April 2020 and died two months later in June. Consky chronicles the challenges and emotions involved in navigating his father’s death amidst the first wave of the pandemic, particularly as many of his family members were frontline healthcare workers. Interwoven with the interviews are reflections on the Consky family’s past, offering readers a glimpse into their history. Consky seizes the remaining months of Harvey’s life as an opportunity for profound discussions on life and loss, allowing him to transcend the confines of the pandemic. However, both circumstances—the impending death and the pandemic—underscore the fragility of existence and force Consky to confront the limitations of his father’s invincibility. Consky’s memoir underscores the shared experience of the pandemic as a mass confrontation with existential questions about life and the inevitability of death. It explores the enormity of death itself, the search for fulfillment while alive, and the ways in which individuals can support each other during the deeply personal journey of dying. Despite being surrounded by loved ones, Consky’s father ultimately faces death alone. Nevertheless, the family finds solace in coming together to mourn his passing, recognizing the potential for togetherness even in the face of the pandemic’s limitations on physical contact.