“It looks like it’s snowing in September.”

Vast, orderly rows of white, at a faraway glance like fields of tulips, but at a closer look something more serious: this is what tourists visiting the National Mall in Washington, D.C. saw from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3. 

Designed by Bethesda artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, it is actually a  memorial of over 600,000 white flags commemorating Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19. The labor-intensive temporary homage was taken down on Oct. 3. 

“It was a really nice tribute to everyone that passed away from COVID. It also honors the family of the victims,” an RM senior said. “It’s unfortunate that they took it down because it should be a permanent thing to always remind us of what happened and what we could do better in the future.” 

Hundreds of volunteers along with organizations like Ruppert Landscape, a landscaping service in Montgomery County, helped install the flags on over 20 acres of the National Mall under the Washington Monument. Each one has a personal message written by the victim’s loved ones. 

“Wish I had one more day. Love you always, Daddy,” one of the notes reads. 

The memorial, named “In America: Remember,” is not the first of its kind. In the fall of 2020, Firstenberg had taken on a similar project, where she installed 270,000 white flags outside the Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in D.C. to represent American COVID deaths so far. Between then and now, almost 400,000 more have died. Even during this year’s installation process, according to NPR, Firstenberg had to order 60,000 more white flags after checking the CDC’s latest death counts.

It was the weight of numbers that first inspired Firstenberg. According to the Bethesda Beat, she had been working as a hospice volunteer for 25 years when she heard a politician call 170,000 deaths “just a statistic.” This did not sit well with her, and she wanted to challenge the notion that any death was insignificant. 

“As the number becomes larger, it becomes easier to dismiss because people can’t comprehend it,” Firstenberg told the Bethesda Beat. “So when numbers become too big and words no longer are listened to, it’s time to use art. A death count is just a data point, but art allows people to viscerally feel the toll.”

According to her website, Firstenberg was not always an artist. But after enjoying an adult clay sculpting class and becoming skilled in other forms of sculpting, she began to pursue ways she could combine visual arts with her humanitarian ambitions. 

“In America: Remember” represents Firstenberg’s style: visually pleasing, but embedded with meaning. Onlookers were reportedly filled at first with admiration then with a sense of the tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“I’m very touched by it,” a D.C. resident told The Tide. “I think that the visual representation is really powerful, especially because it’s in the heart of our country’s capital, where a lot of decisions are made, and where, you know, the government is. Hopefully it’s a reminder for the government to recognize it and try to do everything they can to protect us.” 

“It’s very beautiful. Very thoughtful of the artist,” RM junior Aaron Northern said. 

Many came as tourists, but some came to mourn. “Those who’ve come to write on flags, they’ve told me repeatedly, ‘We feel like we’re no longer alone.’ They realized that all this time they were grieving in isolation—they have a lot of company,” Firstenberg told NBC Washington.