Some veterans’ families delayed memorial services during COVID-19 pandemic. On Memorial Day, risk is reopening ‘old wounds.’

Willie Lathon Jr., a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War, died June 3, less than three months into the pandemic.

He was buried alongside other veterans and their families in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the only military honor provided to Lathon’s family was folding and presenting them with an American flag.

“I gave his daughter the flag,” said his wife, Sheraine Lathon, 69, of Richton Park. “Then I offered him up to the Lord. That was it. It was about 10 minutes.”

Many military families have had to forgo receiving the ceremonial honors typical for a veteran funeral — no 21-gun salutes or bugle playing “taps.” But families seldom waited to bury their loved ones, even when they weren’t even able to go to the cemetery and see them laid to rest.

Some families opted to delay holding a visitation with extended family and friends until capacity restrictions loosened. With Memorial Day weekend bringing to the forefront memories of veterans who have died in service and those who have died during the pandemic, some families are questioning whether to have a service now and relive the grief, funeral directors said.

“They’ve done some healing through grief for the last number of months,” said Stephen Dawson, president and owner of Sax-Tiedemann Funeral Home and Crematorium in Franklin Park. “Trying to reopen that and relive that and have a formal, public way to express grief ... people don’t want to reopen old wounds.”