South Windsor to build COVID-19 memorial

SOUTH WINDSOR — The town council is planning a permanent memorial to residents who died from COVID19, their loved ones and all who have served and suffered during the ongoing pandemic.

Manymemorials have sprung up across the nation in the last year, but most have been temporary, using flags, empty chairs, hearts and other symbols to represent the heavy toll of the coronavirus.

The discussion in South Windsor is still early, but council members and town staff are considering a site where people can reflect for years to come. The proposed location is in Nevers Park where three walking trails converge, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said Friday.

Council memberErica Evans’ proposal for the memorial initially was focused on the 51 South Windsor residents who have died of the disease. But after discussions at the council’s March 15 meeting, Evans said it made sense to broaden the scope.

A former teacher now home raising three young children, Evans said she wants to recognize teachers, health care workers, mourners and all her neighbors who have been impacted during these extraordinary times.

Thelocation being considered is behind the baseball field in the park off Nevers Road. Initial discussions are for a heartshaped patio made of paving blocks, with two benches, two trees and a raised granite monument, Superintendent of Parks John Caldwell said. He is drafting a proposal that will include a cost estimate, Caldwell said.

From the mall in Washington, D.C. to a front yard in Austin, Texas, and across to California, people have raised memorials to mark the scope of the pandemic’s death toll, now approaching 540,000.

In Belmar, New Jersey, a woman who lost her brother wrote his name on a small stone and placed it with other stones arranged in a heart shape on the local beach. The effort has grown to include 2,000 stones forming nine hearts.

A nonprofit group in New York City hosts an online memorial to city residents who lost their lives. A similar site honors the dead of St. Louis, Missouri.

In Ossining, NewYork, a walltype memorial is planned to remember the manypeople lost to the disease in hard-hit Westchester County, and in Oakland County, Michigan, a half-mile long light trail (https://bit.ly/3r 2zWET) is meant to prompt reflection on the toll of the coronavirus in that area.