The Pandemic in the U.S. Has Vastly Improved. For These Families, the Worst Has Just Begun.

Families losing a loved one to the coronavirus now described a surreal, lonely kind of grief, as the threat from the pandemic lessens in the United States.

After more than a year of pandemic restrictions, many Americans are leaving their masks behind, making summer travel plans and joyously reuniting with family and friends. As more are vaccinated and new infections plummet, there is a sense that the worst of the pandemic is over in the United States. But for people like Michele Preissler, 60, the worst has just begun. Ms. Preissler lost her husband to Covid-19 in late May, just as many restrictions were being lifted and life, for many, was starting to look more like normal. Customers were going without masks last week at the Walmart near her home in Pasadena, Md., where she was shopping for items for her husband’s funeral.