This is such a difficult time to lose someone: grieving and social distancing just do not work together, wrote the daughters of one victim who died in April.
According to the county s coroner, as of March 26, 2021, some 974 people had died of COVID-19 here since the pandemic took its first local life a year ago, on March 26, 2020.
Many have had their lives recounted on the obituary pages of LNP | LancasterOnline, but only a small number of those tributes have publicly confirmed that their deaths were related to COVID-19.
Here are 85 coronavirus victims whose LNP | LancasterOnline obituaries or other reports publicly cited the disease s role in their deaths. They are but a fraction of the ongoing pandemic s local toll so far.
THE ISSUE
Candice Highfield, a social worker and school visitor for Hempfield School District, was remembered as âa tireless advocate for the children and familiesâ in the Jan. 15 LNP | LancasterOnline. Highfield, 62, died Jan. 7 of complications from COVID-19. Hers is one of more than 800 Lancaster County deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has killed more than 20,000 Pennsylvanians, more than 409,000 Americans and more than 2 million people worldwide.
Theyâre not just numbers.
Each death from COVID-19 has a face.
Each death is a heartbreak, a tragedy.
Each death is someone who was the nearest, dearest person in the world to someone else.
Candice Highfield loved people, the beach and her Starbucks coffee.
A wife and mother, she was a tireless advocate for the children and families she served as a social worker and school visitor for Hempfield School District.
Highfield died Jan. 7 of complications from COVID-19. She was 62.
âSome people come into your life for a brief moment,â said Keri Detter, an elementary building aide at Landisville Intermediate Center. âBut they come in with such force and magnetism that when they leave there is a rent in your soul.â
Jennifer Baer described Highfield as an irreplaceable resource for educators and students.
âWhen I came to Hempfield as an ESL teacher, I was blessed with working alongside Candice,â said Baer, an English language development language teacher at Farmdale Elementary School. âI like to describe her as a power-per-minute leader with grit and zest. She was a loyal and courageous no-nonsense, optimistic, straight-shooting colleague.