GREECE, N.Y. — The coronavirus pandemic has taken more than 200,000 lives in the United States. The impact has been felt far beyond that. Thousands more have died from non-COVID-related ailments, but because of pandemic-related restrictions, family members never got a chance to say goodbye.

One local woman has finally found some closure — six months after her own father’s death.

What You Need To Know

  • During Amorette Miller's father stay in a NYC hospital, she couldn’t visit him, as hospitals were closed to visitors

  • Robert Shaw died in March after a stroke 

  • The family was unable to give him a proper burial

  • Six months later, she finally brought his ashes home

“We were very close,” said Amorette Miller. “Spoke all the time, saw each other here and there but he was my best friend.”

Miller, of Greece, shared memories of her father. Robert Shaw was a court reporter in New York City for more than 40 years. A father of three, Shaw suffered a stroke on March 19. 

“I just remember being on the highway, just like so upset that I had to turn back,” said Miller.

She left for New York City once she received the news about her father, but Miller couldn’t visit him. Hospitals were closed to visitors. It was the height of the pandemic.

“One of our sayings he and I had was, I would say ‘hey’ on the phone and he would say 'horses eat hay,' ” she said. “And he was in such a terrible state during the stroke. One of the last things I did say to him, was, ‘dad, hey.’ He said, ‘horses eat hay.’ He was there. He remembered.”

Robert Shaw died March 25. But because of the pandemic, Miller could not visit the morgue. The family couldn’t give Shaw a proper burial. During the pandemic, thousands of people have died — alone — in hospitals and nursing homes. Loved ones, unable to hold a hand, to be by their side. To say “goodbye.”

“It was just an awful situation,” said Miller. “The circumstances around the death of so many loved ones have been magnified and amplified because of this, not being able to bury them properly.”

Last weekend, more than six months after her father’s passing, Miller was finally able to go to New York City and retrieve her father’s ashes. For Robert Shaw, there were no services, no funeral — but for his daughter, there is finally closure.

“I felt that there was a part of him in Rochester here with me,” she said. “It’s just something to remember him by. Mission accomplished.”