Parsippany Teen Makes Portraits Of COVID-19 Victims

PARSIPPANY, NJ—When 15-year-old Parsippany resident Hannah Ernst lost her beloved grandfather, Cal Schoenfeld, to coronavirus on May 8th, she was devastated. Soon, Hannah began noticing people becoming increasingly callous when discussing the numbers involved with the disease.

"People would just say it's one percent that die from it, it's no big deal," said Hannah's mom, Karen Ernst, "but these are families that are ruined, this is someone who had loved ones."

So, earlier this summer, Hannah decided to honor her grandfather by making a digital portrait of him. Ernst said she was blown away by her daughter's effort and, after it was posted online, she began to make portraits for other victims. The "Faces of Covid" project was born.

The art is inspired by the need to put a face on the numbers being talked about constantly, such as death and infection rates, and remind people that those figures consist of human lives. Ernst said the requests were initially local, but then things changed.

"It just took off," she said, "We're getting 30 requests per hour right now." She added that many of the requests recently began coming from England. The Faces of Covid Facebook page has more than 2,000 likes, and its Instagram page is growing, both with followers and with completed portraits.

Hannah has completed about 200 of the pictures in less than two weeks. But, her mom said, she will have to slow down when school starts.

"She's been at it night and day," Ernst said, "so that won't work in the fall. But she's amazing, and to bring awareness to something like this is so important. We're very proud of her."

The portraits each have a large yellow heart in the background, the color of covid awareness. Ernst said her daughter's initial goal was "a sea of yellow." But Hannah may have summed up the reason for the project on the Facebook group:

"These are not just numbers," she wrote, "they are lives."