Tacoma light display will honor Pierce County COVID-19 deaths. ‘Each light was someone’
When he’s offering support and counsel to parishioners who have lost someone they love, Shiloh Baptist’s the Rev. Gregory Christopher says he reminds people it’s OK to grieve.
When a friend or family member dies — or transitions, as he prefers to see it — Gregory says a “dark place” often emerges inside, serving as a constant reminder of what has been taken away.
It’s natural, Christopher reminds the struggling, and it hurts.
“From my own experience, I know grief comes at any time of the day,” Christopher told The News Tribune on Tuesday.
That pain — and how much of it is radiating in our community right now — is why local faith leaders feel compelled to recognize the trauma Pierce County has experienced during the coronavirus pandemic, Christopher said.
During Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, Mayor Victoria Woodards proclaimed Monday, March 1 to be COVID-19 Victims and Survivors Memorial Day in Tacoma. Via Zoom, Christopher and Bishop Kim Forest of King of Glory Pentecostal Assembly in Spanaway both joined in.
According to Woodards, the proclamation is part of a similar gesture being made by mayors across the country.
In Tacoma, Christopher said, it will include an event Monday evening in the Tacoma Dome parking lot intended to show support and recognition for everyone who has passed away and those coping with the void that’s been left.
Simply put, Christopher hopes it will bring people “comfort.” He said several members of Shiloh Baptist have lost loved ones during the pandemic, and he’s seen firsthand how difficult it can be, particularly when people are isolated and alone, or families are forced to forgo the “cherished” end of life traditions that help them honor those who have passed away.
“It’s traumatic,” Christopher said of all the final moments that have been missed. “Being able to hold your loved one’s hand while they’re making their transition … that’s sacred, and something to be reverenced.”
The memorial event scheduled for Monday was planned over the last month by Shiloh Baptist, the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance and OURChurch, in coordination with Woodards’ office, Forest said.
According to event organizers, the community is invited to start arriving at Tacoma Dome parking lot A at 5:15 p.m. Similar to an event at Cheney Stadium mourning the loss of Manuel Ellis, the event will include several speakers, with those in attendance encouraged to stay in their cars to maintain social separation. The families of those who have passed away are specifically invited.
In what event organizers hope will be a powerful and meaningful visual display, each person Pierce County has lost to COVID-19 will be represented by a light. When the memorial concludes, each light — close to 500 in total — will stand illuminated for 24 hours near the LeMay Car Museum.
Forest said the visual display of lights and public remembrance planned for Tacoma were inspired by the national memorial in Washington D.C. last month.
The memorial and light display in Tacoma are intended to show that “we care,” he said.
“I want it to convey on the behalf of all of us, that each light was someone, and that life meant something,” Forest said. “We want to let the public and community know that these were lights in our community, and that light — even though it’s gone in a physical sense — still exists. They’re not forgotten.”
Asked about the scope of the mounting loss in Tacoma and Pierce County due to COVID-19, Woodards — who is scheduled to speak during the event — said she was flooded with emotions. The pandemic has touched so many, she said, stealing mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters from us.
“People have been mourning, in some cases very much alone,” Woodards told The News Tribune. “This is a way — as a community — to recognize the toll it has taken and to recognize the lives that have been lost. It’s a way to let those who are hurting know that there’s a community that loves and cares about them and what they’ve been through.”
Woodards looked toward the future and to a day — whenever it might come — when life begins to return to some semblance of normal.
It will be bittersweet, the mayor anticipated, and in some cases devastating when people finally emerge only to be reminded of how great of a toll the pandemic has taken.
“When the pandemic is over and we start to go places again, we’ll expect to see people we normally see, and they’re not going to be there,” Woodards said. “When you walk into your grocery store, or you walk into a restaurant or you go back to work, there are going to be people that you look for who didn’t make it.”
“That’s when we’re going to feel the loss even greater,” she predicted. “It’s going to be extremely hard.”
As a longtime pastor, helping people cope with loss is part of the job, Christopher said. It never gets easier.
But he’s also intimately familiar with “the dark place” that loss can create and hopes that the lighted community memorial planned in Tacoma can be part of the healing process.
“We want people to know that their loved ones still have a lighted place in their heart ... and in our hearts,” Christopher said.
COVID-19 Victims and Survivors Memorial Day in Tacoma
▪ Monday, March 1
▪ Tacoma Dome Parking Lot A
▪ Gates at 5:15 p.m., program starts at 5:30 p.m.
▪ Masks and social distancing guidelines will be followed.
