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Andre Dawson says his Florida funeral home is swamped with COVID-19 deaths

MLB Hall of Famer Andre Dawson wants people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Dawson — who now works as a mortician — has been putting in long hours at his funeral home in Miami to deal with rising COVID deaths in Florida, according to WGN Chicago.

Dawson — who runs the funeral home with his wife, Vanessa — said his business has been full due to COVID-19, and it has reached a point where he fears having to turn away families.

“It’s been pretty touch and go, we put in a lot of long hours, lot of late hours,” Dawson said. “The last three weeks, we have had about 25 total new cases and I think we had 40 last year.”

Of those 25 cases, 20 of them were COVID-19-related deaths. Paradise Memorial Funeral Home has yet to turn away any family in mourning, but Dawson worries it could happen.

Dawson said the funeral home has held six funerals each of the last three Saturdays, a high number. He encouraged people to get vaccinated to try and curb the high number of deaths in the United States.

New COVID cases experienced a significant drop in June, but the presence of the delta variant has caused cases to jump back into the 100,000s in August and September.

It's not the first time Dawson has spoken about COVID-19 deaths. Shortly after the pandemic hit, Dawson described the situation as "stressful."

Andre Dawson runs Florida funeral home

Dawson, who made millions over his 21-year career in MLB, didn't have to take on another job in retirement. His decision to run a funeral home — and be heavily involved in daily activities — shocked some of Dawson's former MLB teammates.

Dawson has long stated he views the funeral home as something that can help the local community. He echoed that sentiment to WGN Chicago, saying holding funerals is "another opportunity for us to do a service in the community."

MLB Hall of Famer Andre Dawson.
Andre Dawson opened a funeral home after retiring from baseball. (Photo by Lee Celano/Getty Images for William Hill US) (Lee Celano via Getty Images)