‘We’ll keep coming here as long as lives are being lost’
BEREAVED FAMILIES HAVE PAID THEIR RESPECTS TO COVID-19 VICTIMS ON MEMORIAL WALL
THOSE who lost loved ones to coronavirus will keep painting red and pink hearts onto a Covid Memorial Wall for “as long as it takes”.
The wall, on the South Bank of the River Thames, next to St Thomas’s Hospital, displays more than 150,000 hearts to remember over 160,000 who died with Covid on their death certificate.
Many of the hearts have faded since they were first painted, over eight days in March, but now volunteers have returned with masonry paint, hoping it can survive harsher weather.
Kirsten Hackman, 55, lost her mum in the first wave.
Looking across the water towards Parliament she blamed the Government for the hearts she was painting.
She said: “The sad fact is that none of these hearts should be here and it’s up to us to remember them and have a permanent memorial. I plan to keep coming back as long as it takes – lives are still being lost every day. “When my mum died there was very little I could do. There were only eight people at her funeral and I know it was not what she would have wanted. “So to paint a heart was something I could do for her.” Fran Hall had only been married to her husband Steve for three weeks when he died of Covid. She often walks along the wall which was started by the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and campaign group Led by Donkeys as a way to connect visually to the huge loss Covid has brought. She said: “We can’t visualise 160,000 people, it’s too big. “But when you realise every single one of these hearts represents a family, then you do understand. “There’s only so much space on this wall and we’re already running out, which is quite horrific.
“Each section is around 6,000 hearts, so already in six weeks we’ll be looking at filling up another section.
“It stops you in your tracks when you actually look at the scale of it.”
She also added Lambeth Council were supportive of the project being made permanent and a sealant company in the Midlands had offered to seal it once the painting is finished.
But before this is done, Fran was adamant each of the hearts must be brightened again so no one is forgotten. This month the world reached the grim milestone of five million Covid deaths, while around 200 a day are currently dying of the disease in the UK.
New anti-viral pills may help cut the death rate further, but they are still in the trial stage.
In the UK nearly 46 million people have been fully jabbed, though the Government is now encouraging booster shots as the effects of the first dose wear off.
There were only eight people at her funeral and I know it was not what she would have wanted. Kirsten Hackman