In September 2021, I have participated in MISSING THEM a digital memorial project to remember and honor every person out of the more than 30,000 confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths in New York City: every New Yorker who died, who they were, and what they meant to this city. MISSING THEM collects the stories of COVID victims via online submissions shared by people who lost their loved ones. My role was to confirm the submission, reach out to the contacts, schedule interviews, and write digital obituaries on MISSING THEM’s collective memorials. The editors of MISSING THEM, Anjali Tsui, and Dean Russel assigned two submissions to me. They were Daniela Gutierrez and Ruth Ottman. Daniela and Ruth were the family members of the people we’ve lost and shared the stories of their loved ones with us.
I reached out to Daniela and Ruth separately and had their respective oral history interviews about their loved ones. Based on the interviews, I wrote two obituaries for Julio Barrios who was Daniela’s father-in-law, and David Strug, who was the husband of Ruth. I was honored to write the obituaries for them and hear about their life stories. It was like the marvelous opportunities which are hardly given to you listening to someone’s universe, although our paths never crossed in person. The experience of interviewing two respective family members about their loved ones was such a memorable and special moment in my life.
Separately, I met Ricky Parks in Parade Ground in Brooklyn in 2021. I was randomly filming kids running around in the playground, they were Ricky’s daughters, Ericanna and Eihanna. Ricky was sitting on a bench nearby, and we had a talk for a while. He said he comes to Parade Ground often with his girls since last year when he lost his wife, Brianna Parks who passed away from COVID-19. They used to have a food cart in Parade Ground. He let me record him, sharing the stories of Brianna, and his current situation where he is trying to rebuild their lives without Brianna.
In 2022, I created a short film based on the discoveries found by the three narrators, Daniela, Ruth, and Ricky, and I. The film is dedicated to my three narrators who co-created the film with me and their loved ones, Julio Barrios, David Strug, and Brianna Parks.