How We Mourn Covid’s Victims

Meant to be a catharsis, a temporary memorial near Coventry, England, for victims of the coronavirus pandemic was set on fire by its creators in May.Credit...Andrew Boyers/ReutersLONDON — Piece by piece, the Covid-19 sanctuary was born on a hilltop in the town of Bedworth in central England. The process was meant to be a metaphor for a human life. Like bones fused over time, it grew taller as the memorial’s creators spent months joining intricate pieces of wood into a skeletal structure that finally stood on its own, 65 feet high.

Then they burned it all down.

There have always been monuments to commemorate the loss of life from calamitous events, such as the thousands of memorials dedicated…