London: British families of some 240,000 people who have died from Covid-19 have hung festive lamps on a London wall, a symbol of love, anger and grief ahead of a Christmas overshadowed by loss.
As the fifth anniversary of the global pandemic approaches, emotions still run raw across the UK amid lingering accusations that the then government responded too slowly to the crisis.
Some 240,000 hearts have been hand painted on the wall, located on the banks of the Thames, the British Parliament.
Each heart on the 500-metre-long (540-yard) wall represents one of the UK victims of the disease, which shattered and disrupted lives around the globe after being first detected in China in December 2019.
“We turn on the lights every Christmas, just to reflect the other people who are not with us,” said Kirsten Hackman, 58, whose mother died of Covid in May 2020.
“For many of us, there is an empty place at the table this Christmas,” he added.
The wall is a collective “therapy session,” the volunteers say.
Since 2019, more than seven million people have died from Covid worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. But the real damage would be much greater.
Thousands of messages written in hearts on the walls of London reveal the scale of the emotional toll and scars the pandemic left on lives across the UK.
“Mamy, love you forever,” reads one, while another says: “Phil, always in my heart”.
The remembrance wall was originally meant to be temporary, and was constructed without permission in March 2021 in protest at then prime minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the pandemic.
He has been accused of taking too long to recognize the risk of Covid and then taking too long to lock down the country in a bid to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease.
The wall is an “outpouring of love, of anger, of rage,” Lorelei King, whose husband died of Covid in March 2020, told AFP.
The 71-year-old is part of the “Friends of the Wall” group, a dozen volunteers who come every Friday to clean the monument, repaint the rain-washed hearts and rewrite the messages.
“It’s meditative,” she says.
The group continues to draw new hearts as Covid claims new lives.
Wall ‘comforts me’
But on the Friday before Christmas, volunteers gathered for another, happier mission: hanging lanterns on the wall.
They were lit up on Monday and the decorations will remain until early January.
Nearly five years after the start of the pandemic, the pain remains the same, said King, adding she was one of many who had not been able to grieve properly.
“We weren’t able to have a real funeral,” due to lockdown rules, she explained, referring to the severe restrictions put in place on visiting loved ones in their dying hours, and then from holding large gatherings to mourn their loss.
Instead, he focuses his power on the wall. ” It gives me comfort. And I don’t need them to forget the other people we care about,” King said.
“We are all in the same boat”, added Michelle Rumball, 53, whose mother died of Covid in April 2020.
She provided the first day that some hearts were painted, following a call on social media from activist organization Led By Donkeys.
Over the next 10 days, hundreds of people who had lost loved ones showed up to add their tribute, despite risking arrest for damaging a listed wall.
“I got really angry at the time. It was a protest,” Rumball recalled.
The group is in discussions with the authorities to make the wall, whose upkeep depends on donations, “permanent” and officially recognised, meaning it could be better protected.
And just days before Christmas, they had a “very positive” meeting, King said.
According to the WHO, more than 232,000 people have died from Covid in the UK. For comparison, there have been around 168,000 deaths in France.
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