‘It Feels Heavy,’ A Hospital Chaplain Sees Death After Death

Chaplain Will Runyon holds back tears as he speaks of the hardships and death amid the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak outside of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Georgia, on Monday, April 20, 2020.

Brynn Anderson / Associated Press

The doctors and nurses gathered at the door asked if he was OK when he walked out of the room, and this time Chaplain Will Runyon shook his head “no.”

He had just finished the latest of his “goodbye visits,” where he carries an iPad into hospital rooms so families can watch their loved ones take their last breath. He’d suited up in a gown and mask, a blister forming on the bridge of his nose from wearing one day after day.

He stepped into a small office, and wept.