Anything else in the book.

With little time to waste and a sermon blaring on the radio, Chuck Prior got back to what's become relentless work.

We spread ourselves too thin.

Prior is the director of this small Houston funeral home, and ever since the global pandemic came to Texas, a state hit hard by Cove in 19, the phone has not stopped ringing.

Prior himself is often answering the call and driving to pick up the body of yet another victim of the disease.

As the nation's coronavirus death toll approaches the half million mark.

Exhausting, overwhelmed.

Pryor says the number of deaths his funeral home handled in 2020 were more than double what he would see in a normal year.

So far, 2021 hasn't been any easier as deaths have mounted in the winter months.

Overloaded hospitals want bodies removed quickly.

It's a huge risk for the employees, especially those that's transported.

Deceased.

Prior staff is feeling the strain, and over the past year, some exhausted workers at priority funeral experience quit while others fell ill.

One of my guys at the beginning of Pandemic Hey died in April just wasn't feeling good, two weeks later, he's gone.

His mom died a week before him, and he even know his mom died.

Pryor's family has dealt with its own fair share of grief during the pandemic, losing his nephew and uncle and other extended family to Cove in 19.

But Prior tries to stay positive, saying he focuses on the present.

I choose to take one day, one person at a time.

Since the right along with prior a crippling winter storm has caused days of power outages and water shortages in Houston, straining the ability of hospitals to treat cove in 19 patients and isolating vulnerable communities cut off by frozen roads.