What began as one woman’s impromptu memorial on January 25, 2021, to honor her brother Rami Samman, created on Belmar’s beach, quickly became a national memorial that displayed thousands of names within 12 hearts – in less than 90 days! The number of hearts increased as people continued to add their loved ones’ names through the winter and spring. The original memorial was created out of yellow-painted clamshells in the shape of a heart, each heart filled with pebble stones remembering a loved one lost to COVID-19 and remains the center of our image.
As the summer season approached, it became clear that the growing memorial would have to be removed from the beach. Rima Samman, Rami’s sister, and her partner, Travis Whitaker, knew they were running out of time. Having a sense of urgency, along with volunteers, they were able to preserve the hearts in custom-made shadow boxes and removed the stones with names from the sand. The hearts were safely stored and documented until a location for their display was found. On July 25th, 2021, just six months later, we found a permanent home at Allaire Community Farm in Wall Township, NJ.