More than 500,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19 since the pandemic hit this country and the world just over a year ago. NPR is remembering some of those who lost their lives by listening to the music they loved and hearing their stories. We're calling our tribute Songs Of Remembrance.

We never really talked about his favorite song, but I lost my best friend in July 2020 to post-COVID sepsis. He developed sepsis after contracting and recovering from COVID-19; it ravaged his immune system and while he recovered, he went into sepsis shock and didn't make it. The song that I heard shortly after his passing, Maroon 5's Memories" helped me through it.

The song helped me deal with his loss. We lived in different states, him Ohio and me Virginia, so we communicated mostly through Facebook. The song takes on extra meaning for me when I use Facebook's memories feature and see old comments on my posts that remind me of our friendship. Those days, a sadness still comes over me thinking about it. I miss him dearly. We had a friendship that was full of jokes and laughter and it may be some time before I find a friend that is as quick witted and funny as hell as he was. —Jamie Bowers, friend

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