Honoring suffering and sacrifice

At a ceremony at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford on Friday, staff and officials gathered to remember the more than 3,000 COVID patients who had been treated at the hospital and honor the professionals who cared for the sick. The event, held during National Hospital Week, took place amid a field of white flags that runs along Woodland Street outside Saint Francis, planted as a visual reminder of the suffering the pandemic brought and the sacrifice and dedication with which health care workers responded.

During the event officials also thanked the group “Sewing Face Masks – Farmington Valley, CT,” which sewed 50,000 cloth face masks in the early days of the pandemic when masks and other PPE were scarce and distributed them to Saint Francis and other organizations. The group donated a quilt to the hospital in gratitude for the care provided to the community.

MICHAEL MCANDREWS PHOTOS/SPECIAL TO THE COURANT A group of Saint Francis Hospital staff applauds a speaker during an event outside the hospital Friday that remembered more than 3,000 COVID-19 patients treated at the hospital during the pandemic.

LEFT: Saint Francis Hospital Executive Director of Mission Integration Jerry Galipeau, left, and hospital President Thomas Burke walk between fields of flags representing the COVID-19 patients the hospital cared for during the pandemic.