COVID -19 victims in Leon County remembered in virtual memorial

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook staff writer

Heart-wrenching stories about the impact of COVID-19 on people in the Tallahassee-Leon County area were told during a virtual memorial for more than 300 victims claimed during the pandemic.

Safe and Healthy Big Bend used the event to mark the dubious one year anniversary since the first COVID-19 death was recorded in the area. City and county government leaders were joined by law enforcement, members of the clergy and healthcare representatives for the virtual memorial. 

Multiple speakers used the platform to advocate taking the available vaccines against the coronavirus. Their plea came about a week after distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was paused because of reported blood clots in six people who took the injection.

What transpired during the past year due to the pandemic wasn’t something that anyone could imagine, said Michael Shields, rabbi at Temple Israel.

The devastation that Shields felt was obvious in his prayer: “A lifetime ago, we sang together, we prayed together and then the door closed and as we shed a tear, we watched as people were dying.” 

Not all of the stories of lost lives were about the speakers’ relatives but the devastation the pandemic has had on others was profoundly relayed. Take for example the description of a family’s struggle that Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell told during a video collage presentation.

Revell told about how a family that was upset because a neighbor had left their Christmas lights up after the holidays. They even sent a note about how the neighborhood was being embarrassed with the lights up. The family with the lights up responded by explaining it was affected by COVID during the holidays and it turned fatal for the father of the home.

The family went on to explain that the fallen father was the one who put up the lights and they struggled to take them down, leaving them in his memory. That inspired others in the neighborhood put back up their lights in a show of support.

Administrators from Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare and Capital Regional Medical Center shared similar accounts of how the pandemic wore on their staff.

Mark O’Bryant, CEO at TMH, said the year was “a blur,” caused by the pandemic as it affected families of victims and his staff.

“There is a physical toll,” he said, “but there is a terrible emotional toll it has taken upon them.”

The isolation of COVID-19 patients was one of the toughest experiences for patients and their families, said Alan Keesee, CEO at Capital Regional Medical Center. He noted that the hospital had seen 2,354 COVID patients since last March.

“Being alone in isolation causes so much emotional stress and we are just grateful of the caregivers that are with our patients and family in the most dire time,” Keesee said.

Leon County Commissioner Jimbo Jackson lived it. The infection struck his home and Fort Braden School, where he is principal. It took the lives of three of his employees and just recently he lost his 84-year-old mother to complications caused by the infection.

“When we talk about small percentages affected and we say the less than 1 percent, it sounds quite trivial,” Jackson said, emotion ringing in his voice. “But when we attach names to that 1 percent, it suddenly hits home.”

Cases like Jackson’s and the ones that Claudia Blackburn and her staff have heard about “have been heartbreaking,” she said. Blackburn is an official with the Florida Department of Health in Leon County. Bouncing back from the tragedy that the pandemic caused won’t be easy for the victims’ families, she said.

“There is no right or wrong way to grieve,” Blackburn said. “The best thing that we can do is to walk alongside those who are grieving, knowing that this journey is a process that takes time. The grief journey cannot be hastened or ignored. Grief can be overwhelming at times.”

Many of the patients at both Tallahassee hospitals were from Gadsden County. As of last Friday, the there were 92 deaths in Gadsden County, according to Commissioner Brenda Holt.

She also said the county’s government will memorialize victims of the pandemic with a monument at the court house in Gadsden County, with flags and bell ringing.

Leon County School Superintendent Rocky Hanna chronicled the impact that the pandemic has had on the school district since March last year when schools were forced to shut down. It took collaboration with healthcare professionals and other agencies among other measures to reopen schools, he said.

“It’s certainly the greatest challenge that I’ve experienced in my three-decade career with our school system,” Hanna said. “But it’s a challenge that we have met over the course of the year by giving families choices and options while trying to keep people safe.”

Hanna also urged continuation of wearing masks, hand washing and social distancing. 

“We can get beyond this and we will,” said Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil, encouraging taking the vaccine. “Let’s all be committed and make sure we get vaccinated. This one action protects the lives of our family members, our neighbors and our friends.”

However, hesitancy toward the vaccine remains one of the biggest challenges in the fight against the virus. While the push continues, new concerns surfaced last week when the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine was put on pause because of six cases of blood clots reported by individual who took the shot.

VACCINE  HESITANCY

The decision to pause the J&J vaccine was the best thing to do, said Rev. RB Holmes, who heads up the Local and Statewide Coronavirus Vaccination Community Education and Engagement Task Force.

“We have to measure the benefits of this vaccine per the risks,” said Holmes. “As it relates to our efforts to encourage African Americans and others to take the vaccines, we must continue to educate and encourage people to talk with their doctors and do what is in their best interest, and their families and neighbors.”

Like Holmes, Dr. Johathan Applebaum, medical director at CarePoint, pointed to the number of blood clot cases compared to more than 7 million who took the J&J vaccine. Applebaum said individual should be encouraged by the decision by FDA and the CDC to pause the one-shot vaccine.

“They are going to do the analysis and find out what is going on with these blood clots that have occurred. They are going to do their due diligence and use the best scientific methods to figure out what’s going on.”