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WALL TOWNSHIP — For those grieving the loss of a loved one, the organizers of Rami’s Heart Covid-19 Memorial have a message for you: “Grieving is not a sickness. It’s not something to rush into, to recover from.”
On Saturday, Rima Samman Whitaker and her husband, Travis, hosted the fourth-annual candle lighting ceremony to commemorate deaths associated with COVID-19 at Allaire Community Farm.
Ms. Whitaker created and named the organization after her brother Rami, who died due to complications from COVID-19 in May 2020 at the age of 40. The memorial became the first COVID-19 memorial in the country that accepts the names of anyone who died from the virus in the United States.
Poor weather conditions on Saturday prompted organizers to move this year’s lighting across from the memorial under an awning. About 75 people packed into the farm room with lawn chairs and tables to take in the hour-long event.
Regarding grief, Ms. Whitaker said to the visitors, “There’s nothing quick about it except the abrupt loss we’ve come to experience. This has shattered our world, no matter how much time passes … Nothing will ever be the same for us. But despite my brother not being here anymore, my love for him has only become stronger.”
Visitors took the opportunity to light a candle under their lost loved ones’ memorial and reflect on the rough journey since their deaths.
Just weeks before the lighting, the memorial group announced it would expand in preparation for its fourth annual lighting ceremony. Ms. Whitaker said that roughly 300 people from across the nation have requested to have their loved ones displayed among those memorialized.
The memorial is an enclosed space, about 40 feet in length and filled with stones in the shapes of hearts, each containing a name. Lighted jars both atop and below the memorial display photos of those lost during the pandemic. The display includes yellow decorations, one of two colors of COVID-19 awareness.
The ceremony included various speakers who, in some way, have been affected by the more than 1,120,000 deaths related to the virus, which killed more than 36,000 people in New Jersey, according to estimates from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
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