‘It’ll never be the same’
Heartfelt Bay Ridge vigil memorializes those lost to COVID-19
COURIER LIFE, JUNE 18-24, 2021 51
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Bay Ridgeites gathered at
Shore Road Park on Saturday
to memorialize neighbors lost
to COVID-19.
The June 12 vigil, organized
by community nonprofi t
Bay Ridge Cares, doubled as
a reminder of all that Brooklyn
has been through since
the coronavirus outbreak in
March 2020.
“So many of the family
members came up to us and
said they didn’t have a funeral,”
said Bay Ridge Cares
President Karen Tadross. “We
planned it so that for the family
members in attendance,
it was representative of the
thing they could not do, which
was mourn with their friends,
their family, their loved
ones.”
The event featured a makeshift
memorial, which consisted
of about 90 hearts
— each with the name of
a Ridgeite who died due to
COVID-19. All the names on
hearts were submitted to Bay
Ridge Cares by the loved ones
of the deceased.
Close to 200 residents of
Bay Ridge’s ZIP code, 11209,
were lost to the virus, according
to data from the New York
Times.
Tadross told Brooklyn Paper
that the time felt right
for a memorial, even though
the city hasn’t yet completely
conquered the coronavirus,
noting the importance of remembering
what the community
went through as the city
moves on from one of its darkest
chapters.
“We felt that we didn’t want
to wait until the end of summer,
because we didn’t want
people to get complacent and
forget the amount of loss,”
Tadross said. “While there
has been tremendous loss, we
wanted to give our community
hope that things are getting
better. So we thought this was
the perfect time to do it.”
The ceremony featured
orchestral and vocal performances
throughout the evening.
The names of each loved
one submitted were read from
a podium, and an LED candle
attached to the heart was lit
when its corresponding name
was read.
“It’s so nice the way they
did it. I didn’t think it was
gonna be like this, I thought
it was gonna be a little kumbayah,
and then everybody
leaves,” said Alessandra Byer,
an attendee who lost both her
father and grandmother to the
coronavirus. “But they have
a quartet, they have singers,
they have candles. It’s very
nice.”
The ceremony nonetheless
was a diffi cult event for many
of those in attendance.
“We’re never gonna get
over this,” said Lorraine Nelson,
whose husband Artie, a
bartender at JJ Bubbles, died
of COVID-19 last April. “Everybody’s
saying everything’s
coming back, it’s the same.
It’ll never be the same for us,
it’s a hole in your heart that’s
never gonna heal.”
The display was only temporary
due to Parks Department
rules, but Bay Ridge
Cares had intended it to be —
mourners were encouraged to
take their loved ones’ hearts
back home with them as a token
of remembrance, and the
organization will send any unclaimed
hearts to those who
submitted names but didn’t attend
the vigil.
“I got goosebumps, because
it’s just so real,” said Assemblymember
Mathylde Frontus
upon seeing the display of
hearts. “It’s something that
we’re still coming to terms
with, the loss, the grief. We’re
still not whole, we’re still remembering
the loved ones
that we lost, but this is very
nice what they’re doing here
tonight.”
Other local elected offi cials
in attendance included Councilmember
Justin Brannan
and state Sen. Andrew Gounardes.
The ceremony was just
one of many being held as
the city enters a post-COVID
reality. Mayor Bill de Blasio
announced Monday that the
city would hold a long-awaited
ticker-tape parade for frontline
workers, over a year after
fi rst promising to do so during
the height of the pandemic.
That parade, along Manhattan’s
Canyon of Heroes, is
planned for July 7.
Tadross, however, is hoping
that Saturday’s memorial
is the last Bay Ridge Cares has
to do.
“We hope we never have to
do another one of these,” she
said. “It’s not what Bay Ridge
Cares likes to do.”
Additional reporting by Arthur
de Gaeta
Lauren Lockwood and Lorraine Nelson (top left) pose with a picture of
the late Artie Nelson, next to a heart with his name on it. Hearts were
displayed on the grass of the park (top right) as mourners gathered to
remember their loved ones (bottom left).
Photos by Arthur de Gaeta and Kathy Valentine
Everybody’s saying
everything’s coming
back, it’s the same.
It’ll never be the
same for us.