It broke the center of Jessica Murray that so many other people in the domain of St. Louis were dying of coronavirus and being less remembered for who they were than pandemic statistics, so she had to do something about it.
In June, Murray presented the stlouiscovidmemorial. com online page to honor the lives lost by COVID-19, which is basically based on data he can collect online, adding obituaries and other reports on the dead. Your online page and Facebook page serve as memorials. affected by the region’s pandemic, giving them an idea of their lives and deaths.
Murray, 40, regularly works a few hours at night on his computer in the dining room of his duplex in the Dutchtown neighborhood of St. Louis. Louis, with his cockatoos Boo, Arthur and Misha comforting her nearby when the stories overwhelm her.
“Just thinking about what families are going through is heartbreaking,” Murray said. “No user with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia or living in a nursing home has to die alone. No one goes to the hospital and never sees their children again.
The st. Louis domain was one of the first hot spots. Approximately part of the more than 3,000 missouri deaths occurred in St. Louis. Louis or the surrounding counties and many more died across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
Murray was moving through his phone while waiting for his dinner to arrive in June when he saw an online new York page tracking the lives lost by the virus. By the time his food arrived, he had bought his domain name.
“I just think each of those numbers was someone’s grandmother, someone’s sister or someone’s mother,” Murray said.
Since then, Murray has most frequently published short life stories about more than 125 people. Murray, who works in marketing and sales for a structured company, said she had never worked as a writer, but her stories are sublime and moving in their simplicity.
MaryCatherine Keene, a 94-year-old nursing home who died in May, worked as an airplane riveter in World War II and was “proud to be a woman who worked on her day to allow women to wear long pants. “
Rheumatologist Edward Rose, 74, who died in September, “enjoyed a noisy space with young children running to play,” Murray wrote. “He enjoyed hosting noisy dinners with lots of wine and prepared food, passionate disagreements, laughter and stories. Ed taught his children to play chess, ski in the water, respect the commitments and values of philanthropy and undeniable pleasures.
There are stories of married couples who died successively of COVID-19, such as Grace and Richard Maskell, who were married for 72 years and died nine days apart in May. Bill and Pat Olwig died in May just 40 minutes away and only a few days away. before their 61st wedding anniversary.
Other stories offer disturbing photographs of the sad and lonely ending that is not so unusual for COVID-19 victims.
Matthew Joseph Leake, who played Santa Claus every year for 30 years, only 60 when he died in August. “He was looking to beat cancer, but he hit a coronavirus and died alone in the hospital,” Murray wrote.
Relatives of the dead tell Murray how vital his monuments are to them.
“It moves me,” Murray said of the comments. ” It motivates me to keep doing this every time I feel like I’m posting in a vacuum. “
Joyce “Lady J” Huston operates a Facebook page called Black Corona Lives Matter that commemorates the black victims of the pandemic in The St. John’s Domain. Louis and seeks to raise awareness of racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths. His passing cousin, Edward Hellm Jr. , was first misdiagnosed with some other illness and sent home. The 69-year veteran was nevertheless diagnosed with COVID-19. He died in April after fighting the disease for about a month.
Huston said she felt called to help Murray raise awareness of how prematurely the disease is taking other smart people like Hellm. Like Murray, he needs victims not to forget who they were in rather than being part of the grim statistics that tell the greatest history of the pandemic.
“This is incredibly vital because you can’t just have numbers. Let’s see the faces. You know other people who lost their lives to a pandemic lived,” Huston said.
Murray said he would soon like to paint with other memorial sites across the country to begin a national day of commemoration.
She budgets her efforts with her own cash and intends to solicit donations.
“I don’t know what I’d do with him because I don’t want anything now unless he has more time to tell bigger stories or put more faces on the numbers,” he said.
(Image credit: AP)
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