SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A traveling monument in honor of the "forever essential" healthcare workers and caregivers who lost their lives due to COVID-19 was unveiled at the California State Capitol Wednesday evening.
In a press release, the installation, named Forever Essential, is described as a physical and digital memorial.
“Since the start of the pandemic, more than 460 healthcare workers, that we are aware of in California, have died from COVID-19,” said Dennis Anderson, a lab assistant at Mercy Hospital of Folsom. “The 36 healthcare workers featured on the Forever Essential memorial are but a fraction of those we’ve lost.
The memorial features seven towers with images of dozens of California healthcare workers who died of coronavirus. People came together for a vigil for the hundreds of fallen caregivers memorialized by the installation, which was temporarily on display on the west side of the Capitol building Wednesday afternoon.
"One of the most wrenching moments on the frontlines against Covid was when our coworkers who served alongside us, became our patients," said Anderson. "This memorial was created in hopes that it can help us all transform a bit of our private pain into public dignity and to carry forward the legacies of those we’ve lost.”
Sally Lara is one of the healthcare workers honored in the Forever Essential memorial. The Phlebotomist from Riverside came out of retirement to help during the coronavirus pandemic. She died after a weeks-long battle with COVID-19 in June 2020.
“My mother lost her life in the pursuit of helping others,” said Vanessa Campos, Lara’s daughter. “She is not another number in the death toll. She is truly a hero.”
The memorial will make stops in several cities across the state during summer 2021.
SEIU United Healthcare Workers West is inviting people to add names of healthcare workers who passed away from coronavirus. If you would like to submit a name, go to www.foreveressential.org.
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