Last week, Lisbon held a Light up the Night memorial service in honor of former principal Roger Teeling.
It was truly a celebration of Roger’s life and time at Lisbon with photos of him with students that showed his passion as an educator, as well as his love of the outdoor sports.
Teeling was one of many people we lost in this community over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whose deaths we weren’t able to publicly grieve.
There’s so many people whose absence will be felt this weekend as we gather in person again to mark Memorial Day.
A few weeks into COVID-19, celebrated Iowa Public Radio journalist Dean Borg passed away. Borg was always so generous to the Sun staff, sharing his insight in local and national events. We might have more photographs of Marion Lehman, because she was at every event and celebration, including annual Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies.
We lost Judy Stine, the longtime teacher and lover of the arts having a lasting impact on the people in the Mount Vernon and Lisbon communities.
In Lisbon, just after vaccinations started rolling out, we lost Beryl O’Connor. Beryl and her husband Carl were influential in so many aspects in the City of Lisbon. In January 2020, we wrote a retrospective on her passing the torch as mayor to her son, Doug, and she spoke in glowing terms of the things the town did when she was a mayor.
As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day this year, it might be time to take some acknowledgement of not just those we’ve lost in previous wars, but those we’ve lost during this pandemic as well, and the impact those lives have had on us and our communities.
It only seems fitting to do so.