Memorializing the 1 million Americans who have died from Covid-19.
 | By Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer |
A few months ago, a group of colleagues and I held a meeting to discuss how we might respond when the United States inevitably hit a once-unthinkable milestone: one million Americans dead from Covid-19. |
It felt hard to know what to say. The story of Covid in America has already been told so well, by so many; the one million threshold was simultaneously momentous and, with so many dead already, also almost meaningless. Was there anything we could do to break through the nation's collective numbness about so much loss? |
What we published — "1 Million Dead, 13 Last Messages" — is our best attempt. We asked readers to submit their last text exchanges with loved ones they lost to Covid-19. I hope you'll read them. |
These text messages are not easy to look through — I've cried multiple times while putting this project together — but what makes them so effective for this particular moment, I think, is how readily they allow us to imagine being on the receiving end of such messages. How to respond to a father who says he's about to be intubated? A sister who talks about how scared she is? These messages force us to fully grapple with the reality of not just one million lives lost, but one million deaths, in all of their specific cruelties. |
Doing so does not feel good; this is not a project that encourages wistful reflection. But I think a feeling of shock — and maybe even horror — at times is the appropriate way to mark this moment. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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