In the late Spring of 2020 we naively thought the pandemic was almost over.
The national lockdown was just weeks away from being lifted and that longed for reunion with friends and families was drawing closer.
Our daily lives were expected to get back to normal or a ‘new normal’ as we were being told. However for thousands of people that just simply wasn’t going to be the case. For bereaved families who had lost loved ones to Covid, their lives would never be the same again.
The death toll from Covid continued to rise and for those who were beginning to recover from the virus there seemed to be lasting symptoms that were loosely defined as ‘Long Covid.’
Read more: Anti-vax vandals target Scotland's Covid memorial
Through our coverage in The Herald, Glasgow minister Rev Neil Galbraith had spoken of how he had held funerals with just a mother and a son and streamed services online. He also said ‘at some point we will have to remember this.’
It struck a chord with the editorial team at The Herald and in May 2020, a campaign was launched to create a National Covid Memorial.
I had the honour to lead this campaign, which this week won Campaign of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. It was never going to be just like any other campaign. Yes it had an aim, could bring people together and was a rallying call to action.
But this was a campaign which was mattered deeply to everyone involved – all of us had been touched by the pandemic in some way. While it might have been a legacy for The Herald campaign and create a memorial, it was a campaign which united people in grief, pain and those who felt a need to belong to a community after weeks of isolation during lockdown.
A public fund was set up and it led to a close to £250,000 memorial being created in the grounds of Glasgow’s Pollok Country Park after Glasgow City Council offered to host the memorial in the park's grounds.
We worked with our partner greenspace scotland, a charity and social enterprise which promotes green networks and spaces, and commissioned artist Alec Finlay to design and create the memorial - a series of oak tree support formed from human poses.
They are linked by I remember passages that were collected and collated in a book with accompanying and moving audio read by actor Robert Carlyle.
Read more: The Herald wins two awards at 44th Scottish Press Awards
The first phase was opened by the then deputy First Minister John Swinney in May 2022 and the memorial was completed earlier this year.
A public fund raised thousands with contributions from bereaved families and those who were affected by the pandemic. It saw people take on mountain challenges and charity walks. We told their stories with powerful features and videos which ran on our website and social media channels.
The impact of the campaign and subsequent memorial was tangible – it gave them a voice, a place to heal and a place to remember.
The campaign also received generous donations from the Scottish Government, The Hunter Foundation, City Charitable Trust, The Watson Foundation, and the Freemasons of Glasgow. An initial donation by the Harry Clarke Group of companies, based in Hillington, kickstarted the public fund. The £5000 donation was made in memory of Jim Russell whose fiancee Connie McCready backed the memorial campaign.
Making the decision to launch a campaign, at a time when we were still living with Covid and families were suffering, might have been viewed as just too soon.
However, Deputy First Minister John Swinney reflected in his remarks at the opening of the National Covid Memorial, saying the concept of the memorial “will help us through the recovery.”
As a journalist, I have always felt privileged to give a voice to someone who needed to be heard, to people wanting to make a difference.
During the past three years, I’ve listened to families in their darkest times and fought back tears as they begin to open up on their last moments of their loved ones, their last cherished memories and how they felt robbed of time due to Covid.
I’ve listened to their fears for the future as the world began to open up around them, but also felt the world was moving on without them.
It was the tremendous support from those whose lives had been irrevocably changed, that made me determined to deliver our promise of creating a place where they could turn to or come together simply to remember.
I hope that the award is not only recognition for what was achieved in Glasgow's Pollok Country Park, but the trust placed in me to honour hopes, fears and memories.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here