Read Jesmyn Ward’s Vanity Fair essay on sudden death of her husband, COVID-19 fears
Famed Mississippi author Jesmyn Ward unpacks her grief following her husband’s death, the coronavirus pandemic and racial injustices happening across the United States in an essay published by Vanity Fair.
Ward’s husband, Brandon Miller, died Jan. 9 at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, according to his obituary.
Ward said the official cause of death was acute respiratory distress syndrome.
He was 33.
“He was kind; he met strangers down on their luck, strangers who needed help, men stranded two states away from home with no money, and veterans panhandling for food; he gave them money, rides, and food, and they left him as friends,” his obituary says. “He was looking forward to teaching his son to play basketball and to learn how to play soccer along with his daughter. He was honest with those he loved, even if the truth was painful. ... He had a strong, great big heart.”
Ward walks readers through the aftermath of losing her partner, her “Beloved” as she calls him, while also processing the coronavirus pandemic and the killings of Black citizens by police across the United States, including Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd.
“Even in a pandemic, even in grief, I found myself commanded to amplify the voices of the dead that sing to me, from their boat to my boat, on the sea of time,” Ward wrote.
She has won the National Book award twice, for “Salvage The Bones” in 2011 and “Sing, Unburied, Sing” in 2017. She’s also been the recipient of the MacArthur “genius grant.”
“Jesmyn makes you confront your upbringing, your privilege and your feelings about your neighbors. It cuts a knife through your morals, forcing you to empathize with the people who live down the street but have an entirely different experience living in Mississippi,” the Sun Herald reported in 2018.
Ward lives in the DeLisle community near Pass Christian with her two children, Noemi and Brando Miller.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 11:25 AM.