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Lives Lost: At US Veterans' Home, Towering Legacies of Coronavirus Dead

Associated Press

   In communities around the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts,
   families are marking the first Memorial Day without a veteran who was a
   parent, spouse or sibling. More than 70 have died of the coronavirus at
   the home. Relatives of the lost tell similar stories of their loved
   one, many who rarely spoke of their service, having moved on to tend to
   families and new careers at home. The outbreak at the Soldiers' Home is
   one of the worst in the country and the subject of state and federal
   investigations.

   Each of their stories was different, but common strains repeat: Of
   humility and generosity; of finding joy in the unpretentious; of a
   sharp mind disappearing into fog or a hale body betrayed by age.

   And, of service, in war or in peace, that often went unspoken when they
   returned home.

   In their final years, these veterans found their place at the Holyoke
   Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts. And in their final days, as the
   coronavirus engulfed the home and killed more than 70, they found
   battle again.

   Left behind by these victims of the pandemic are those who were blessed
   by their kindnesses. Memorial Day dawns for the first time without them
   here, and a new emptiness pervades the little Cape Cods and prim
   colonials they once shared.

   At these doorsteps, they were heroes not for valor, not for the enemies
   they defeated, but for the tenderness they showed. Peek through their
   bay windows and screen doors and bedroom panes. There is no blizzard of
   ticker tape, no gunfire of salute, just a void, a hole, a chasm of
   what's been lost.

   Seeking to capture moments of private mourning at a time of global
   isolation, Associated Press photographer David Goldman visited the
   homes of 12 families struggling to honor spouses, parents and siblings
   during a lockdown that has sidelined many funeral traditions.

   Goldman used a projector to cast large images of the veterans onto the
   homes of their loved ones, who looked out from doors and windows. The
   resulting portraits show both the towering place each veteran held in
   their loved ones' lives -- and the sadness left behind. Here are their
   stories.

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