People who lost loved ones to COVID continue pushing for a national day of remembrance

There's no national remembrance day for the 1.2 million people who've died from COVID. Five years after the pandemic started, an advocacy group made up of people who lost loved ones to COVID is working to make a memorial day a reality.

Desire James "DJ" Arsene Versailles, of Milton, is part of the group, Marked By Covid. His mother, Florcie Yves Chavannes Versailles, died of COVID in a Braintree nursing home in May 2020 at age 78. She had no loved ones by her side as lockdowns tried to stop virus transmission.

"It still hurts me gravely to this day, wishing that there was something I could have done to help and, you know, get her to see me," Versailles said.

The pandemic still feels surreal to him; it bothers him that many people go on with life as if the pandemic never happened, he said.

In addition to pushing for a COVID remembrance day, Marked By Covid wants a permanent memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

" So that we can put a line in the sand that this was a really big deal in which more than a million lives were lost, countless others disrupted — whether they're dealing with long COVID or the economic fallout from having lost a job or a parent or a loved one," said Kristin Urquiza, co-founder and executive director of Marked By Covid.

Urquiza's father died from the virus in June of 2020 at age 65.

"There's been big pressure since the very beginning to move on and pretend that this wasn't a big deal," Urquiza, of San Francisco, said. "But I think people all across the country know that that's not true."

The group works closely with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts. Last week, the two senators re-introduced a resolution to designate the first Monday in March as COVID-19 Victims Memorial Day. It's the third time they've tried to get the resolution passed. There’s a similar measure in the House.

"Five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, our communities’ recovery isn’t complete without recognizing the pain and loss experienced in the process," Warren, who lost a brother to COVID, said in a statement. "This resolution will give long-overdue recognition and honor to the family, friends, and neighbors we lost to the pandemic.”

Urquiza said the measures have stalled on Capitol Hill because COVID is so politicized. But similar remembrance resolutions have passed in about 250 cities and 14 states, she said.

Massachusetts isn't one of them. Advocates tried for years to get a resolution passed on Beacon Hill to designate an annual COVID remembrance day in March. That measure died last session.

But politics isn’t stopping DJ Versailles. He created a website to memorialize his mother, and he added a tribute to her to a national traveling COVID memorial that the advocacy group created.

Versailles described his mother as a force of nature, with a beautiful smile and a "colorful personality." She immigrated to Boston from Haiti in the late 1960s. She rallied for affordable housing alongside civil rights activist Mel King. She adopted her son when he was a newborn. She volunteered in homeless shelters, and later experienced homelessness. Throughout it all, he said, she never faltered in her devotion to him.

"She was a magnificent mother — really adored me and loved me a lot, and would do anything just to make me happy," Versailles said. "And she did everything she could to bring me up well."

Versailles and Urquiza believe the country should formally memorialize COVID so people remember how it disproportionately hit marginalized communities. Systemic racism and unequal access to health care and housing left their parents at greater risk.

" My dad died in a neighborhood that is mainly Spanish speaking, in which the hospital was overrun with individuals," Urquiza said. "And that wasn't the case, you know, 10 miles down the road in the more affluent neighborhood and part of town."