The coronavirus pandemic has brought financial hardship for many, but its been a blessing for many go-getters like Phaedra Parks.
The former Real Housewives of Atlanta star is a licensed funeral director and mortician, and she’s also an author, activist, and attorney in Atlanta. During a conversation on the Page Six podcast, We Hear, she revealed that her mortuary business was “booming.”
“Oh my gosh, it’s going great, didn’t you hear about that pandemic, girl? We are booming. Unfortunately. We have been jam-packed since the pandemic started.”
She’s playing another position on the frontline and witnessing the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic firsthand. “I’m not physician, however, I do have a mortuary and I’ll tell you this: Normally in the summer months, we’re waiting for a boating accident or a motorcycle crash, because otherwise, we’re pretty empty,” she said. “We are jam-packed. We are working like it’s our heaviest season, so… I tell people when they say, ‘It’s a joke, it’s not that big of a deal,’ well, let me put it to you in real terms, I’m getting 17 calls a day for pickups and that’s at one location. Last week, all of the people were under 59.”
The Marriage Boot Camp star noted that she has witnessed a surge of fatalities of people in their 20s. “It makes it extremely frightening… I’ve seen several mothers come in burying their children.” She added of the difficult situation, “the pandemic really wreaks havoc on families, so we’ve buried three or four people in one immediate family. It’s really sad. It definitely takes a toll on you emotionally seeing a mother, a father, a son, an aunt… this pandemic is really serious and people should realize that, because it’s not a joke.”
Phaedra Parks is currently on the WeTV series with her boyfriend, Medina Islam, and they’ve never been intimate before after dating for six months. The global lockdown has forced them to have a long-distance relationship.
“I’ve been pretty awesome when it comes to being able to master different careers, and I’ve got several jobs. But when it comes to relationships, I haven’t always been so successful with it,” Parks said of her decision to go on the relationship show. “I wanted to make sure that the passion didn’t cloud my judgment, because… when you’re entangled, sometimes the entangling can be so good you can’t really [think] outside the entanglement.”
