MORRISTOWN — When Greenfield residents Dawn Hamilton and Catherine Roberts lost their family patriarch to COVID-19 earlier this year, they wanted him to be remembered as more than just a number.
They soon found that to be a common sentiment among other survivors of those taken by a pandemic in which collective statistics often overshadow individual stories.
Now they’re part of a growing national effort to commemorate victims of the novel coronavirus, one yellow heart at a time.
Alan Trobe, Hamilton’s father and Roberts’ grandfather, died of COVID-19 at age 76 in January 2021. After his death, Hamilton was searching for how others who lost loved ones to the virus coped with their grief when she came across Yellow Heart Memorial and saw how so many were feeling the same way she and her family were.
“The grief, the frustration, the anger even,” Hamilton said. “It was all there, just like we felt.”
Yellow Heart Memorial remembers those who have died from COVID-19 by displaying their names on yellow paper hearts. Rosie Davis held the first Yellow Heart Memorial in her backyard after losing her mother to COVID-19 and expanded with over 2,000 hearts to the Irving Archives Museum in Irving, Texas, in January 2021. Yellow hearts have been spreading across the country ever since.
Hamilton was soon inspired to bring the initiative to central Indiana. Her daughter, Roberts, branch manager of the Velma Wortman Morristown Branch of the Shelby County Public Library, suggested they ask the Morristown Literacy Council about hosting it at the library. The group was receptive to the idea, and the Crossroads Indiana Memorial was born.
Yellow hearts now fill windows in the library to promote the opening of the memorial later this month in the facility’s community room, where all the hearts will be moved and where many have already gone up. They bear the names of those lost to COVID-19, with many also including their ages, dates of death and places lived from across the U.S.
“They were more than just the however many deaths that day, more than just that number,” Roberts said. “…Each one of them has a story, each one of them had someone that loved them.”
The local memorial had nearly 500 hearts as of Tuesday, filled with names provided through the Yellow Heart Memorial, ones Hamilton and Roberts found on their own, and submissions to them from those looking to honor loved ones.
Anyone who lost someone to COVID-19 is welcome to submit information for a heart to be prepared. Hamilton and Roberts are also displaying photos and stories submitted about those being commemorated.
“We wanted to feature those just to show how it has affected these families,” Roberts said of the stories. “How they’re remembering their loved one, feeling that loss with them. That’s been a big thing. As we read these stories, you feel the loss of them.”
Hamilton and Roberts’ memorial calls attention to those who died of COVID-19 at long-term care facilities by placing a dragonfly marker on the yellow hearts of those victims. More than half of Hancock County’s 156 COVID-19 deaths have been residents of long-term care facilities, including the father and grandfather Hamilton and Roberts lost. About 44% of the state’s novel coronavirus fatalities have been residents of long-term care facilities.
The Crossroads Indiana Memorial Facebook page posts photos of the hearts and those being recognized in the memorial.
The memorial’s opening ceremony will be at noon Saturday, Sept. 25 at the library, located at 127 E. Main St. in Morristown. Speakers will include Jeff Wolfe, a chaplain with the Spiritual Care Association who will speak about coping with grief from a distance; and Diane Dishman of Chesterton, whose husband died from COVID-19.
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Crossroads Indiana Memorial welcomes submissions from those who have lost someone they care about to COVID-19 to be included in its Yellow Heart Memorial. Those submitting are asked to include:
- Your name
- Loved one’s name
- Date of passing
- Location of passing
- Whether they were in a long-term health-care facility
- Any information, stories or memories you’d like to share
- A photo if you’d like one displayed
Information can be submitted to [email protected], by messaging the Crossroads Indiana Memorial Facebook page, or by visiting the Velma Wortman Morristown Branch of the Shelby County Public Library, 127 E. Main St., Morristown.
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WHAT: Crossroads Indiana Memorial Opening Ceremony
WHEN: Noon Saturday, Sept. 25
WHERE: Velma Wortman Morristown Branch of the Shelby County Public Library, 127 E. Main St., Morristown
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