A park in Detroit has been transformed into a drive-thru memorial for locals who have lost their lives from the coronavirus, with more than 900 posters of victims placed into the ground.
The images provided by relatives were first put on display in Belle Isle Park Monday as hearses led processions around the property.
"It's easy to get numb in this environment, but we must not just look at this as numbers. These are people. Men and women, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, who had dreams and plans and a story,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said while speaking at the site. “They weren't finished yet."
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Detroit’s director of arts and culture, Rochelle Riley, said officials hope the memorial will “wake people up to the devastating effect of the pandemic” and also “bring some peace to families whose loved ones didn’t have the funerals they deserved.”
More than 1,500 people in Detroit have fallen victim to the virus, the Detroit Free Press reported, citing Whitmer.
The pictures in the Detroit park showed those who died of COVID-19 during better times in their lives: Darrin Adams at his college graduation; Daniel Aldape catching a fish; Shirley Frank with an Elvis impersonator; and Veronica Davis crossing the finish line at a race.
"It's kind of like walking through a cemetery, but you're looking at photographs instead of tombstones... It's so serene," Detroit Police photographer Reggie Burks, who lost colleagues and friends to the coronavirus, told the Free Press.
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Tyree Barksdale, 18, was also there to pay tribute to his mother Laneeka, who was 47 when she died from the coronavirus in late March.
“There’s not a moment in the day that I’m not thinking about my mom,” he told the Free Press. “There are days that I can’t sleep.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.