How much do you remember about the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic? Pam Marino here, wishing I had kept more of a detailed journal. Looking back six years later, so much of that time is a blur.
Earlier today, March 10 at the Monterey County Government Center in downtown Salinas, about 100 people gathered to remember not just the time, but the 940 county residents who lost their lives during the three years of the official pandemic emergency, as well as the thousands of people who worked throughout to care for the sick and protect as many people as possible during an uncertain period.
They gathered for the opening of the Covid Memorial Garden, featuring an art installation made up of five colorful acrylic panels by Sand City artists and siblings Shelby and Taylor Hawthorne. The garden and installation were made possible by approximately $400,000 in private donations. The panels remained cloaked during the ceremony, which included many speeches, proclamations and remembrances by family members who lost loved ones.
One speaker, Dr. Nadine Semer, a palliative care doctor for Salinas Valley Health who sits on the SVH Board of Governors, told the crowd she never thought such a memorial marking the pandemic and its impact would come to pass.
“It seems like, at least here in the U.S., it never happened. It’s as if everything that happened has gotten swallowed up in the black hole that nobody wants to talk about, nobody remembers,” Semer said.
As a medical professional who was deeply embedded in caring for others through the pandemic, Semer called the memorial garden “incredibly meaningful” and called it a “sign of respect for the people that we’ve lost and the families who are still mourning,” as well as to “acknowledge the truth of what actually took place.”
That so many people and organizations from all over the county came together to protect residents was part of why Monterey County’s Covid-19 mortality rate was among the lowest in the nation, Semer said.
“It’s really something to be celebrated and remembered, especially going into the future, because the sad reality is this could occur again,” she said.
After all the speeches and memories were shared, the five supervisors simultaneously slid off the black cloths revealing the transparent acrylic panels of different heights, each one featuring a variety of shades of a single color—green, yellow, red, blue and purple—in a stained-glass effect, designed to represent the diversity of the county.
One of the family members who spoke, Maria Muñoz, representing the family of Juan A. Muñoz, who died on Feb. 14, 2021, fought back tears as she recounted the terrible time her family suffered through the loss of their beloved patriarch.
“Today we are also here for the survivors,” Muñoz said, adding that the memorial garden gives families a physical space to reflect and remember. She encouraged others to come visit.
“Come and witness the beauty that our community has truly blessed us to have,” she said.
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