SCRANTON, Pa. — Standing still, surrounded by over a thousand yellow hearts, the Letizi family looked at their loved one's name, yearning to see him just one more time.
"It's just unbelievable to see his name there," said Linda Letizi.
The family lost their beloved father and husband, Paul, to coronavirus in October of 2020.
"My husband was a very humble man. A very kind and caring man, and when it took him, it came in like a tidal wave," Letizi said.
Paul Letizi's yellow heart is just one of the 1,700 hung on arches outside the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton.
It's a part of a memorial to remember the lives lost to COVID-19 in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Dozens of families held pictures of lost loved ones and hung flowers in their memory.
"People have literally dehumanized Covid losses because it's just so many of them that have happened. You know, where death prior to Covid happened every once in a while, death has just become an ongoing everyday part of our lives," said Trish Zimmerman.
Trish Zimmerman organized the ceremony, where an additional 200 chairs sat empty, all to represent the nearly 600,000 lives lost across the United States.
Zimmerman lost her father, Jim, to COVID-19 this January.
"It's a mother, it's a brother, it's a kid, it's a friend, it's a neighbor - it's somebody, and every single person in this world at this point has been impacted by Covid in some way," Zimmerman said.
Families like the Zimmerman's and Letizi's say it's important to mask up and get vaccinated.
"This is far from over. This is just the beginning," Letizi said. "We might be getting this under control, but there's going to be another strain coming in."
"Like I said, you just wanna get vaccinated. Vaccinate yourselves for your loved ones, your community, because we don't want to make or story theirs," said Kim Letizi.