Rev. Vickey Gibbs

Rev. Vickey Gibbs / Courtesy of Shannon Young

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Two years later, more than a million people have died in the United States from the disease. To put a face on this number and pay respect to the departed, NPR asked our audience to share songs that reminded them of a loved one lost to COVID-19. What follows are individual stories of those who have passed, those mourning them and the songs that continue to unite them.

When I started working at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church in Houston and met Vickey, the associate pastor, so that she could show me the ropes, I knew that we would be friends. Once we broke the ice and discovered that we both loved to cook and to eat good food, everything clicked and we found we had a lot of other things in common. Every time I hear the song "For Good" from Wicked, I think about my friend. Her outlook on life and the way she lived her faith will forever have an impact on me, and I am changed because I knew her. —Shannon Young, friend

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