Oral History Interview with Jack "Sonny" Milton

Partial Transcript: "Alright, I am Jack "Sonny" Meyer, my date of birth is 9-5-35, and I am the Chairman of the Board at Hermon Meyer and Son Funeral Home in Louisville, KY, which is a Jewish Funeral Home."

Segment Synopsis: Interviewee introduces himself and his place of business.

Keywords: herman meyer and son funeral home; Herman Meyer and Son Funeral Home

Subjects: Kentucky

Partial Transcript: "Alright Sonny, I'm gonna start with my questions and the first one is, describe who you were and what your life was like before you realized how serious covid was."

Segment Synopsis: Sonny takes pride in helping people. The funeral business, which he works in, is focused on helping people in their time of need. However, the pandemic affected this business, basically shutting them down. Instead of people coming into the funeral home, most things have been done at the graveside to protect the population and the rabbis that work at the funeral home.

Keywords: coronavirus; Coronavirus; covid-19; Covid-19

Subjects: Kentucky; Pandemic

Partial Transcript: "Well can you speak to the loss of ritual and the inability to properly say goodbye?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny discusses the grieving process of Judaism. The pandemic affected people's ability to grieve properly and their faith. He says that the rabbis used Zoom to stream every service they held at the cemetery to help.

Keywords: Burial; burial; funeral; Funeral; grieve; Grieve; Ritual; ritual

Subjects: Kentucky

Partial Transcript: "Tell me, what is your take on"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny notes that the number of deaths in the Jewish community were only slightly higher than the previous year. He says that most of their covid cases have come from out of town, since they have been cautious about following covid procedures.

Keywords: covid procedures; Covid procedures

Subjects: Kentucky; Pandemic

Partial Transcript: "Have you talked to anybody else in the Funeral Directors' community locally and, you know, what they're going through?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny discusses what the other funeral directors are going through. He says that Florida has opened back up for visitation, but New York is still shut down. Sonny says that his business does the same work as normal but to a lesser amount.

Keywords: funeral director; Funeral Director

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville

Partial Transcript: "But I mean, anybody that's died's been subjected to these restricted condi- uh conditions, which are certainly understandably there, but how hard is that to accept for, you know, somebody of any age to be able to say goodbye to their loved ones and know that the washing is not the same as usual, can't have people at the visitation, it's more virtual. I mean, that has to be heartbreaking for some people."

Segment Synopsis: Sonny discusses how hard it is for people to not be able to go through the grieving process and not have the support they need after a loved one passes away due to the pandemic.

Keywords: Funeral; funeral

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville

Partial Transcript: "What is your feeling about some of these funeral homes, um, nationwide that have just had cases stacked and stacked and stacked? I mean, how do you - how do you do that?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny notes that the Funeral Home company has had help to better separate people during these rituals. An issue with visitations is that people are still hugging, kissing, and touching.

Keywords: funeral home; Funeral Home; touching; Touching

Subjects: Kentucky

Partial Transcript: "It doesn't replace the in person touch that you've been able to give, I mean, thank goodness we do have Zoom and Facebook, thank goodness we have something."

Segment Synopsis: Sonny and the Interviewer talk about current technology and how it has helped, to some extent, in the place of in person gatherings.

Keywords: facebook; Facebook; Zoom; zoom

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville

Partial Transcript: "What you think you could do, uh maybe as the vaccines come forward, because we could step back to some degree of normalcy, do you think?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny talks about how his rabbis have had services with 10 people or less and held them outside under a tent if the weather permits. However, their ultra Orthodox rabbi came down with covid.

Keywords: coronavirus; Coronavirus; covid-19; Covid-19

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville

Partial Transcript: "Do you think that they have politicized the pandemic in any way?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny thinks President Trump lost the election because of the pandemic. He believes that Indiana is outperforming Kentucky in terms of the vaccine. He says Governor Beshear has done an excellent job during the pandemic. He believes that the pandemic and politics have split the country completely.

Keywords: Beshear; Trump

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville; Pandemic

Partial Transcript: "Sonny can you tell me anything good that has happened to you, um, as a result of the pandemic?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny answers that his granddaughter started college. Even though she was very worried, she has realized that it is a good thing. Also, Sonny gets to spend more time together with his wife because they won't go anywhere except for their house and the office.

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville; Pandemic

Partial Transcript: "Well uh Sonny, what about um, what about the racial unrest? I mean, you're around Louisville, you know what's kinda going on"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny believes that the pandemic did not really affect racial unrest. He says that certain cases were handled poorly, but that the protests probably helped spread Covid. He also said it is not necessarily racial unrest, but simply unrest from everybody being unhappy with each other.

Keywords: pandemic; Pandemic; race; Race

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville

Partial Transcript: "Yes. 50 -100 years from now, Sonny, when uh historians study this water shed period, what do you think their analysis would be?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny believes that people looking back on this time will think that our current nation could've handled things better and that we still have a long way to go.

Keywords: history; History; pandemic; Pandemic

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville; Pandemic

Partial Transcript: "Well Sonny, uh, in terms of um, I know you know plenty of people that live alone inside. For some of these people that live alone or in nursing homes, they've missed out on lack of physical touch and contact. I mean, people that don't get handshake or hugs, or pats on the back anymore, I mean especially like people who are in nursing homes and can't see their families. It's taken a big toll, hasn't it?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny discusses how he has a niece who is a nurse at a nursing home. She said the 50% of the nursing home caught covid. He also talks about his worries for people who are at home and aren't able to go out.

Keywords: nursing home; Nursing Home

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville; Pandemic

Partial Transcript: "Well my last question is actually, um, once we've passed this acute phase and maybe when everybody's had the vaccine and we have achieved herd immunity, Sonny, what do you think the new normal will be?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny says that the new normal will never be the old normal. He thinks that a lot of people will still work from home, and is not sure what will happen to office buildings.

Keywords: Future; future

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville; Pandemic

Partial Transcript: "Sonny, that's all my questions, do you have anything else you'd like to say?"

Segment Synopsis: Sonny thanks the interviewer. He says that without these interviews, the history would be lost forever. They also talk about Turkish burial rituals.

Subjects: Kentucky; Louisville