As the COVID-19 outbreak picked up steam in the spring, it became evident that Lehigh Valley residents needed more Ketchup in their lives. Ketchup is the 37-pound corgi that is usually pulling double duty as a therapy animal at hospitals and nursing homes, as well as at the Kohut and Downing funeral homes, where his owner, Felicia Wiedemann, serves as funeral director. He’s instrumental, Wiedemann says, in putting people at ease during a trying time. But, after stay-at-home orders went into effect, Wiedemann had to figure out how to comfort grieving families from afar.
At the funeral homes, that meant organizing drive-thru services, and using technology to reach mourners who were unable to attend in person. And while families have been appreciative and flexible, Wiedemann says she understands the limitations of contact-free grieving. “It’s hard. You want to give someone a hug, shake their hand, talk to them. It’s been a learning curve for everybody,” she says.
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Ketchup, too, has adapted, via technology that’s not exactly modern, but just as effective. You may have noticed photographs of a dapper, bowtie-wearing Ketchup placed in strategic locations around the Lehigh Valley, along with messages encouraging people to stay “pawsitive”; that was Wiedemann’s work. “The response we got was overwhelming,” she says. She recalls an encounter with a jogger who saw her out and about and asked her if she could have one of the photographs to take home. Wiedemann obliged, and says the woman’s countenance changed immediately. “She just lit up. It just put a big smile on her face.”
On Easter weekend, Wiedemann was spreading cheer with a different furry friend. She joined the Easter Bunny (who may or may not have been Wiedemann’s stepdaughter in a rabbit costume) in making porch deliveries of some 40 baskets to kids who had to forgo the usual family gatherings and egg hunts amidst stay-at-home orders. “I’m honored to do it,” says Wiedemann. “It’s just nice making people smile.”
