Hearts

This chapter examines pandemic memorials in Britain that prominently use the heart symbol. The case studies considered are (i) Yellow Hearts to Remember, which led to the creation of thousands of handmade memorial hearts in the front windows of British homes, (ii) the Bwlch Mountain heart memorial constructed of stones gathered together on a Welsh mountainside, and (iii) the National Covid Memorial Wall, which features over 240,000 hand-drawn red hearts on a wall facing the Houses of Parliament in central London. It is noted that none of them are designed to be permanent in the manner of a traditional war memorial, and on Bwlch Mountain and at the National Covid Memorial Wall an element of their power resides in the extent to which they have to be continually remade. All three projects began as grassroots initiatives led by bereaved families, and the chapter ends with a discussion of how grief must lie at the centre of remembering COVID-19&s;s impacts, but there remains the challenge of how to engage with its other myriad effects on society.