ANNA MARIA – Spanning more than 250 yards and representing the life of each Floridian who has died of COVID-19, the COVID Ribbon Memorial of Florida was unveiled Tuesday morning.
Comprised of a colorful, yet somber, string of approximately 30,000 plastic ribbons, the COVID Ribbon Memorial of Florida was created by Anna Maria resident and photographer Cathy Tobias, who was assisted by her sister, Judy Tobias, and some friends.
The 11 a.m. unveiling ceremony on Feb. 16 took place on the public beach near the Spring Avenue street end and the Sandbar restaurant in Anna Maria.
Earlier that morning, the ribbons were stretched along the beach using wooden stakes for support. Permanent markers were placed near some of the stakes for those who wished to write on a ribbon the name of a friend or loved one who perished from the infectious disease.
Before the ceremony began, Bradenton resident Pam Butsch said a friend of hers died of COVID-19 the previous week and the deceased woman’s husband was currently hospitalized and on a ventilator.
“This is my farewell to a beautiful person who suffered from a very ugly disease. She died at The Villages and her husband is in the hospital fighting for his life,” Butsch said regarding the ribbon memorial’s impact on her.
The art of remembering
After addressing a large media gathering on the beach, Tobias stood under a pop-up tent provided by the Sandbar and delivered remarks she prepared for the occasion.
“Welcome everyone, thanks for coming out and sharing in the COVID Ribbon Memorial of Florida’s first public appearance. This started as a seed of thought, a care, a concern in my mind and heart. I was having a hard time comprehending the numbers of people dying from COVID. I watched the numbers tick up daily – locally, nationally and around the world. How do I wrap my head around those numbers? How do I humanize what was and is still happening? Thankfully, only a small percentage die from COVID, yet that small percent is huge. In that number there are people who were grandparents, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, friends, lovers and spouses,” Tobias said.
“I remember back in May when the first 100 died from COVID and the New York Times listed all the names, and the impact it had on me. I found it overwhelming and I was deeply saddened. Then it was 200,000. Then it was 400,000 and I still could not wrap my head around the enormity of these numbers. I wanted to create something physical and visual, something tangible and interactive that would tell the story. I started tying knots in mid-November and my sister, who’s here today, started too. The death toll (in Florida) at that time was about 16,000. There are 30,000 ribbons out there. When we hold it up, I want us to remember each life lost because each ribbon is an individual life lost to COVID. Our goal today is to bring the community together to interact with this art installation that is a physical and visual representation of these lives that have been lost to COVID in Florida. Together, we can remember them, celebrate them, express our grief and find a path to healing together,” Tobias said.
She then invited her friend, Rabbi Stacey Offner, to speak.
“The first thing I want to say is thank you to Cathy Tobias, who is an extraordinary individual. She has brilliantly put together art and its beauty and magnificence with the tragedy that’s too difficult to articulate,” Offner said.
Offner then referenced the black buttons with multi-colored letters she and many others wore.
“My button is over my heart because we come together to acknowledge that our hearts are torn today grieving for all the lives lost. Our buttons say, ‘We Remember.’ It’s an active verb, this verb we call remembering. Some of them are the lives of your family members, your friends, your community, our community. Not only the word ‘remember’ but the word ‘we.’ We come together to grieve and to honor and we are going to lift up those beautiful ribbons and we’re going to lift up life itself – the beauty of life, the preciousness of life and our commitment to remember today, tomorrow and always. With God’s help, may we remember,” Offner said.
The crowd then dispersed along the entire length of the ribbon memorial and at Tobias’ command lifted the ribbons over their heads while engaging in a few moments of silence, silent prayer and remembrance.
Afterward, Tobias was asked how she felt about what she just saw.
“I feel so emotional about it and my heart just breaks for all those lost lives. I need a better word than ‘overwhelmed’ and I just don’t have it,” she said.
Tobias said she’s been in touch with someone about possibly displaying the COVID Ribbon Memorial in St. Petersburg.
“I’m hoping it will go there and I hope there will be other cities that want to display it. My goal is to keep adding to it,” Tobias said, noting she’s also been in contact with someone in another state who’s expressed interest in creating a ribbon memorial.
“On a bigger scale, would we do this for the whole nation and bring people together to start tying ribbons for each state,” she said.
Those interested in displaying the COVID Ribbon Memorial of Florida, or creating a ribbon memorial of their own, can contact Tobias through the COVID Ribbon Memorial Facebook or Instagram pages.
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