Rima in New Jersey

Episode 6. Rima in New Jersey

Rima lost her brother to COVID on May 10, 2020 which happened to be Mother's Day.  Rima shares her story with us in this episode and also talks so openly about how difficult it is to watch her mother's grief at losing a son on Mother's Day. To honor her brother's life, Rima started the Rami's Heart COVID-19 Memorial on January 25, 2021, on what would have been her brother's 41st birthday.  She posted to her personal social media and asked if anyone else would like her to write a family members name on rocks and take it out to the beach.  She received some names from people in her community and had a lovely, small candle lighting service on the beach.  But then more and more people started sending Rima their family members names.  What began as one heart on the beach in New Jersey, became two and then four and then ten.  It grew too big to keep there and summer weather could have damaged it. 

Rima became instrumental in moving the hearts, very carefully, to a permanent location. You can read more about this amazing memorial here: https://theomahastar.com/syndicate/grassroots-memorials-remember-u-s-covid-19-deaths-while-push-is-on-for-national-monument/

And you can also read about her memorial and the national movement to create a national memorial here: https://time.com/6095659/memorializing-covid-19-tragedy/

If you would like to donate to the memorial you can do that here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ramis-heart-covid19-memorial

You can also follow her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Covid19MemorialRamisheart/

You can email the memorial ramisheart@gmail.com

The memorial is still taking names.  If you would like to submit your family member's name, please send an email or contact her via Facebook. 

For context on this interview and the ever-changing pandemic, we recorded this episode on July 14, 2021.