Boise resident on COVID-19 memorial: Each death ‘is a human life,’ not just a number
As Idaho’s COVID-19 death toll grows, so does the number of flags on Cindy Pollock’s front lawn.
The yard of her Foothills home is covered with small orange flags, each representing a life lost because of COVID-19. Each day, Pollock adds to the homemade memorial as the pandemic count rises.
“This isn’t a political statement, and it’s a simple statement for those who have lost lives to COVID,” she said.
When she decided to start the memorial more than a week ago, she bought 1,200 of the flags at Lowe’s. Idaho’s death toll jumped past 900 on Wednesday and has been rising rapidly — it was just 521 on Oct. 15 — so now Pollock hopes she’ll have enough.
She got the idea after seeing something similar that an artist in Texas has done to represent COVID-19 deaths. Pollock said that as the pandemic continued, she found herself becoming “numb” to the statistics released every day about the number of new infections and deaths in Idaho.
“These deaths aren’t just numbers,” she said. “Each one is a human life.”
She knew that adding flags daily could be a visual representation of the lives lost, and sometimes a visual display can add weight to the numbers. It makes the view of her lawn sobering.
“Almost every morning when I put in each flag, I whisper a little blessing saying, ‘may you be at peace,’” she told the Statesman.
A few of the flags have names written on them for people who have died as a result of COVID-19-related causes — Pollock said some residents have asked her to attach their loved ones’ names to the memorial.
Pollock moved to Idaho about seven years ago, and she said the pandemic has had a real impact on her, because she has many health care workers in her family. She stressed that Idahoans need to listen to the warnings that hospitals are giving.
“I’ve seen what it’s done to them and we can’t forget about that,” she said.
Last Monday, St. Luke’s Health System reported that 142 of its 520 hospitalized patients were COVID-19-positive. Saint Alphonsus Health System reported that 75 of its 283 hospitalized patients were COVID-19-positive. Both hospital systems have testing positivity rates of greater than 20%.
Pollock said she plans to continue adding flags as more Idaho deaths are reported.
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 3:27 PM.
