13,000 in Two Years – Honoring Those Lost to COVID-19

It began on September 28, 2020, before this site was even launched. That day we honored 18 people on the Wall of Memories. Lois Patricia Andersen of Richfield, Minnesota was the first, a smiling elderly lady wearing a tiara with the words “Irish Princess.” 

Eighteen.

Today – two years and four days later – we have reached 13,000 COVID-19 victims honored on our website. An impressive number, but only approximately 1.24% of the total who have died in the United States as of today. 

As far as we can tell, that is the largest number of people memorialized on any U.S.-based online COVID-19 project. The fact that we have reached this number is entirely due to our diligent volunteers, our donors, and the original architects of the site, tQ Automation.

We are not blowing up balloons and hanging streamers today. Reaching 13,000 simply means that over the course of two and a half years, we have managed to keep pace with a mortality rate that is nearly double the last viral epidemic that took the lives of over half a million people. Our goal is to honor all the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, simply because we can’t define what we could call “finished,” so we continue to collect stories of those we’ve lost. 

It’s a grim project, powered by bereaved family members and inspired volunteers. The pace of death is slowing, thank God, but our work will not.

Thirteen thousand is not enough, but just for today we are proud that we have been a vehicle for lifting up stories of those we’ve lost.

If you have a lost a loved one to COVID-19, please share their story on our site.

Ruth Nasrullah is the co-founder of COVID-19 Wall of Memories.