Empty Chairs Set Up At Newton City Hall To Honor Pandemic Losses

NEWTON, MA — Newton city employees set out 148 empty chairs on the lawn at City Hall to represent the Newton residents whose lives have been lost to the COVID-19 virus since March.

"Newtonians whose chairs will be forever empty at the holiday table," Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in a statement.

The chairs represent people like Bernard Secler, 95, and his wife Eveyln, 94 who died within days of each other at the Falls at Cordingly Dam assisted living community. They represent people like Kitty Gladstone, 92, who thought she had pneumonia, WWII veteran John Aherens,96, and American Red Cross executive and Newton North graduate Donna Morrissey, 51; Carol Paolini, 83, who loved ice cream and watching old Westerns, who died in April at the Care One At Newton.

The city's memorial is modeled after the 20,000 empty chairs set out in October on the grassy Ellipse in Washington, D.C., and closer to home, the 144 chairs at Lawrence City Hall, and the 82 at Plymouth Town Hall.

City officials said they expect to keep the chairs out through the holiday season.

The mayor asked that those who pass by remember that each empty chair reflects a life lost, and honor those lives by wearing masks and physically distancing.

As of Nov. 23, there have been 1,381 people who tested positive for the coronavirus. The data indicates the city’s increasing incidence rate means that Newton will move into the state's yellow metric group later this week.

Related: Waltham Man Puts Human Face To Coronavirus Death Toll ...

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