18 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 6, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
A borough in mourning: An emotional
COVID Remembrance Day in Forest Park
BY DEAN MOSES
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
A borough wept. A borough healed.
Over 7,000 Queens residents have perished
to COVID-19, and on May 1, a fraction
of those lost were represented within
a cultural center they will never enjoy
again.
Th e Forest Park Bandshell was constructed
with human life in mind, an
artistic focal point from where spectators
assemble in benches and marvel at the
talents of others. But during the Queens
COVID Remembrance Day (QCRD) on
Saturday, these benches were void of the
life they were built for, instead serving
to facilitate a makeshift funeral service
many were deprived of during the height
of pandemic. Th e center row of chairs
stretched into the bandshell’s wide berth,
each one harboring a painting representing
an absent life. Grieving family members
sat on the outskirts.
Th is moralization of the dead and celebration
of lives led was organized by the
QCRD committee and intended to aid in
the ongoing healing process. With countless
people unable to say goodbye to their
loved ones due to hospital restrictions and
protocols, the aft ernoon functioned as a
way for families to both grieve together
and heal together.
Th e opening ceremony was ticketed
and exclusively intended for
the deceased’s kin. Attendees
arrived just before 1 p.m.,
bringing bouquets of fl owers
and framed photographs.
Some held each other’s
hands, others gripped
one another’s shoulders,
but all carried
with them an unspoken
understanding that
the day would be an emotionally
taxing one. As the
fi rst speaker and co-organizer
Brian Walter took to
the stage and spoke about
his own loss, it ushered in
a wave of grief, and a deluge
of tears.
“A year ago today marked the halfway
point in my father’s fi ght against COVID.
I took him to the hospital on April 22, and
the monster would take him from us on
May 10. Our COVID story is like many
of yours: Zoom calls, roller-coaster rides
of updates from doctors, and the constant
unknown of what was coming next,
and in the end a heartbreaking loss of a
life that should never have been taken,”
Walter told onlookers.
Walter was fl anked on stage by fellow
committee members and elected
offi cials such as Queens Borough
President Donovan Richards, Senator Joe
Addabbo, Congresswoman Grace Meng
and Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar.
Draped behind them
hung a curtain of yellow
hearts inscribed with
more names of those
lost to the deadly virus.
Before their speeches,
speakers stood in solemn
refl ection of the names,
each mother, daughter,
son, father, sister and
brother lost to time and
memory. With a drape
of bereavement behind
him and a sea of sorrow
ahead of him, it was clear
this monumental loss
aff ected the way in which
Queens residents mourned the loss of loved ones during a memorial service at the Forest Park
Bandshell, commemorating over 7,000 individuals who perished from COVID-19.
Donovan Richards addressed attendees.
“I am deeply sorry to hear of each
and every one of your losses due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Th at is why we
are here to mourn, to refl ect, to remember,
to off er comfort,” Richards began
Photos by Dean Moses
with 30 seconds of silence. Citing racial
and gender disparities, Richards continued:
“We lost far too many due to these
inequities which plague our systems and
institutions. Th ese deaths were preventable.
Th ose deaths were systematic failures,
not the science or the challenges of
the crisis alone — we were not prepared,”
Richards said.
Once the opening ceremony concluded,
family members carried the weight of
their losses to the seats holding the depictions
of their loved ones where they paid
their respects by laying fl owers and sitting
beside the hand-drawn illustrations.
But this act proved too much for many.
Attendees broke down, shedding tears,
clasping fellow survivors in agony.
Th e Queens COVID Remembrance
Day lasted until 8 p.m. and fi nished with
a sunset vigil.
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