Cheryl Hartmann with her mother, Edith Dix.

Cheryl Hartmann had a plan in place for the day when her elderly mother died.

Knowing how difficult it would be to make decisions in a state of grief, she reached out to Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary in Astoria years ago to organize the arrangements. Upon the death of her mother, Edith Dix, Caldwell’s would deal with cremation and provide everything necessary for the funeral.

When Dix, 95, died on Aug. 22 from complications of the coronavirus, things didn’t go as planned.

A resident care coordinator at the Seaside care home where Dix was living called Caldwell’s to let them know of Dix’s death and was told the funeral home was not accepting virus deaths.

Hartmann was in disbelief.

“This was extremely upsetting for me. I can’t tell you how upsetting it was. I felt it was very disrespectful,” she said. “People don’t choose how they’re going to pass.”

Reneé Caldwell, the owner and funeral director at Caldwell’s, told The Astorian that at the time of Dix’s death, the funeral home had run out of personal protective equipment to safely handle virus deaths.

“We were just unprepared. We didn’t have all the gowns and everything, the stuff we need to respond,” she said. “That was just a one-time thing.”

Caldwell acknowledged the PPE shortage was not what they initially told Hartmann. Caldwell also said the funeral home had to decline two other virus deaths.

In the days following Dix’s death, Caldwell said the funeral home has restocked PPE and is able to accept people who have died from the virus.

“We were really sorry about the people that we couldn’t pick up when we didn’t have the gowns and everything,” Caldwell said.

Hartmann, who placed her mother with Hughes-Ransom Mortuary & Crematory in Astoria, describes the day her mother died as the worst of her life.

“I spent the entire weekend with my mother. She struggled for two days until she finally passed,” said Hartmann, who lives in Warrenton and works as a night auditor. “I just wanted everything to go smoothly and have everything taken care of so I didn’t have to feel at loose ends. And she just made it feel like it was no big deal.

“I would give anything if this didn’t happen,” she said.

Dix fits the description of Clatsop County’s 13th virus death of the pandemic.

The Astorian is aware of other potential virus deaths based on information from families and indicators from funeral homes during the surge linked to the delta variant. While some virus deaths have been publicly reported soon after they happen, there have been lags of days, weeks and even months for others.

Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria has also said that several patients who did not have the virus have died because they were unable to be transferred to other hospitals for specialized care due to the number of virus patients.

Local deaths — whether linked to the virus or not — have put pressure on funeral homes.

Hughes-Ransom, for example, shared 18 death notices with The Astorian over the weekend covering Aug. 16 to Saturday.