Faces of Coronavirus: Honoring the Californians We've Lost

Most didn't get to say goodbye face-to-face, as families lost loved ones to a deadly and unseen virus. These are their stories.

This project is a memorial that will continue to grow as stories emerge. The people remembered worked in supermarkets, for advocacy organizations, in the healthcare field and more. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, husbands, wives and friends. Our aim is to share the real lives and stories of the victims who have died of coronavirus complications, and to bring faces to the statistics.

You can share your loved one's story to be included in this memorial at the link below.

For some, it happened quickly. Others described the end of life as agonizing. 

Since the first known coronavirus-related death in the Bay Area on Feb. 6, more than 64,000 people have died from the virus in California.

As the global coronavirus outbreak spread, many hospitals and nursing facilities put in place new policies and guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19. Due to restrictions in visitor access to these facilities, many families have been forced to say goodbye to their loved ones using FaceTime on an iPad with the help of healthcare workers.

Some didn't get to say goodbye at all. 

"It seems like a bad dream," one woman said, after losing her husband of nearly 30 years to the deadly virus.

One man would tell his children to never be afraid of anything in life. Then he died of coronavirus complications working an essential job.

One woman came to the United States with a few dollars in her pocket, learned English, got her GED and a good job at a hospital. When she fell ill, her daughter begged to take her to the hospital, but she said she didn't feel sick enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room.

“She was young and she was an achiever and humble and caring and loving,” an uncle said of his 20-year-old niece, who worked as a nurse’s assistant at a facility in Riverside before she died.

Below, we remember some of the people we've lost.

Select an image to learn more about each person.

If you have lost a loved one due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and would like to tell their story, please let us know.

You can use the form below to contact us. Select "Coronavirus" in the dropdown menu.

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