Women’s mission is to honor the victims of COVID-19

ST. So many people in the Louis-St. Louis region died of the coronavirus and broke Jessica Murray’s heart because they were less remembered about who they were than as a pandemic statistic. So she decided to do something about it.

Murray launched a website in June stlouiscovidmemorial.com To honor the life lost in COVID-19. She relies primarily on information that can be collected online, such as obituaries and other news articles about the dead.With her site Facebook page It serves as a monument to the pandemic victims in the area and gives a glimpse of their lives and deaths.

Murray, 40, usually works for several hours at night on his laptop in the Duplex dining room in the Dutchtown district of St. Louis. Often, parrots Boo, Arthur, and Missha provide comfort nearby, and the story overwhelms her.

“It’s heartbreaking just to think about what the family is experiencing. People with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or in nursing homes don’t have to die alone. No one goes to the hospital and never again. You shouldn’t meet the children. “

The St. Louis area was an early hotspot. About half of Missouri’s more than 3,000 deaths occur in St. Louis and its surrounding counties. And hundreds of others died across the Mississippi River in Illinois.

Murray was scrolling through the phone while waiting for dinner to arrive in June and saw the New York City website tracking the lives lost by the virus. By the time her food arrived, she had purchased her domain name.

“I just thought there was someone’s grandma, someone’s sister, or someone’s mom behind each of these numbers,” Murray said.

Since then, Murray has posted mostly short life stories about more than 125 people. Murray, who works in the marketing and sales support of a construction company, said she had never worked as a writer, but her story is elegant and touching with its simplicity.

Mary Katherine Keane, a 94-year-old nursing home resident who died in May, worked as an airplane riveter during World War II, “a woman who worked in her time to allow women to wear long trousers. I was proud of that. “

“I loved the noisy house where the kids were playing,” wrote Edward Rose, 74, a rheumatologist who died in September. “He loved hosting a noisy dinner party with lots of wine and home cooking, passionate disagreements, laughter, and storytelling. Ed played chess and water skiing for his kids. , Taught to carry out the commitment and values ​​of enjoying charity, travel, and simple enjoyment. “

There are stories about couples who died one after another on COVID-19, like Grace and Richard Maskel. They married for 72 years and died 9 days apart in May. Bill and Pat Olwig died in May, just 40 minutes before their 61st wedding anniversary.

Other stories provide an unforgettable image of a sad and lonely end that is very common to COVID-19 victims.

Matthew Joseph Leak, who played Santa for 30 years each year, was only 60 when he died in August. “He was trying to beat the cancer, but he caught the coronavirus and died alone in the hospital,” Murray wrote.

Relatives of the dead often tell Murray how meaningful her monument is to them.

“It really impresses me,” Murray said of the feedback. “Whenever I feel like I’m posting to Void, I want to keep doing this.”

Joyce “Lady J” Houston Run Facebook page Called the Black Corona Live Matter to commemorate the black victims of the pandemic in the St. Louis region and to raise awareness about it. Racial disparity Death from COVID-19. Her cousin, Edward Helm Jr., was initially misdiagnosed as having another illness and was sent home. The 69-year-old veteran was finally diagnosed with COVID-19. He died in April after fighting the illness for about a month.

Mr Houston said he felt Murray was called to help inform good people like Helm that the illness was prematurely robbing them. Like Murray, she wants the victims to be remembered for the people they were, not as part of the rigorous statistics that tell the bigger story of the pandemic.

“It’s very important because it’s not just numbers. You need to look at your face. You need to hear that these were living people who died in a pandemic,” Huston said.

Murray said he would like to work with other monuments across the country to probably start National Foundation Day.

She is funding her efforts with her own money and has no plans to solicit donations.

“I don’t know what to do with it because I don’t have anything I need right now, except for more time to talk better and put more faces behind these numbers. “She said.

Relation: “It’s important that these are the faces behind the numbers” | The website honors those who died in COVID-19