The Symbolic

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is made up of two V-shaped walls of polished black granite merging with the earth (Boudet-Brugal 2021). Each of the walls is composed of seventy panels listing the names of all Americans declared missing or killed in action in Vietnam. All names are arranged chronologically in order of the casualty and alphabetically on each day. The East panels point towards the Washington Monument and list all the deaths beginning from June 8, 1956 (the center) to May 25, 1968 (the end). The West panels point toward the Lincoln Memorial and list all the deaths continuing from May 25, 1968 (the end) and ending with May 15, 1975 (the center) (“Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund” 2024). The Wall is 493 feet long and at approximately ten feet tall at its highest point, the center of the V.

Maya Lin’s Wall does not just list the names of all the Americans who died in Vietnam, it tells a story of the War. Visitors experience the narrative as they walk the paved path and confront the Wall themselves. Visitors can start the path on either end, the East or West. It is a powerful experience that words cannot capture as “the memorial invites the visitors to immerse themselves and travel into memory as a path along the wall takes them below ground level inducing soul searching and impinging upon imaginaries” (Boudet-Brugal 2021). The decision to list the names chronologically rather than alphabetically was intentional. For one, it meant that the people who served and died together would be listed together in perpetuity (Reston Jr. 2017).

Furthermore, it gives the visitor the experience of walking through the passage of time and facing the memories directly (Boudet-Brugal 2021). This is further emphasized by the memorial’s physically reflective nature. It is impossible to not see oneself among the mass of names. It “unites the present with the past” (Grunwald 1992). Maya Lin saw the Wall “as an impermeable membrane separating the living from the dead, ‘as if the black-brown earth were polished and made into an interface between the sunny world and the quiet, dark world beyond that we can’t enter’” (Senie 2016, 17). Over forty years later, the narrative experience remains and visitors continue to not just pass by walls, but through collective memory itself.

The memorial is built into the earth, with the size changing as it progresses. It is the shortest at each end and the tallest at the apex. The polished black granite is reflective, so visitors see themselves amongst the list of names. Each panel has lights so they are visible at night since the Wall is accessible at all hours and on all days of the year. The path visitors walk is cobblestone with a central granite strip. 

Next to each name on the Wall is either a diamond or a cross to indicate the person’s status. The diamonds indicate that the person is either known or presumed dead. The crosses indicate that the person “was missing or prisoner status when the Wall was built in 1982 and remains unaccounted for today. When a service member is repatriated, the diamond is superimposed over the cross” (Wall Facts 2021).

Rami’s Heart COVID-19 memorial is open to the public, though some months it is only open by appointment due to the farm’s hours. On the farm, “the memorial and its accompanying garden are centrally located and measure approximately 60 feet by 12 feet… including a variety of plantings, two 8-by-8 foot heart sculptures, and a walking path constructed out of heart-shaped stepping stones” (Roman 2021a). Rami’s Heart COVID-19 Memorial emphasizes that the memorial “is a place of remembrance for those lost during this pandemic throughout the country” and that the spaces offers “friends and family a place to honor the lives of their loved ones, as well as document the impact COVID-19 has had on all of us” (Samman and Whitaker 2022). 

Under the shelter of a barn at the memorial are the eleven hearts themselves, which consist of a multitude of stones with the names of lost loved ones surrounded by yellow shells in the shape of a heart. Each heart is then mounted so visitors can walk by and see the hearts, looking for the names of their loved ones. The heart displays are the “centerpiece” of the memorial (Samman and Whitaker 2022; Shah 2021). Their goal was to create an experience at the site that went beyond just going to look at the pebbles, hence the artwork and garden. Today, rather than adding new stones to the hearts, people can get stones engraved and they are added to the garden (Samman and Whitaker 2022).

The use of the color yellow was intentional by Rima when she began the memorial at the beach. After her brother’s death, she joined the “Yellow Hearts to Remember” Facebook page, not realizing it was based in the United Kingdom. A COVID-19 widower started the page with his grandkids, and it took on its own grassroots fame. When she began her own memorial, she was inspired by the group in the United Kingdom and chose to make her own version of the yellow hearts (Email with Rima Samman 2024). 

Rami’s Heart COVID-19 Memorial requests people not touch the stones or leave any items behind.

For more information, visit the website by clicking here.