Memorial Health’s newest art to honor employees during COVID-19 pandemic
By Blair Caldwell | August 10, 2020 at 2:27 PM EDT - Updated August 10 at 6:26 PM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Memorial Health’s staff have been hard at work battling the coronavirus pandemic for months. Times have not always been easy, but now the hospital is hanging hope thanks to a local artist.
Right when you walk into Memorial Health, you’ll now be greeted by colorful paintings that remind the workers of their resiliency through this difficult time.
Two paintings are made of Memorial Health employees’ own words. About three months ago, staff were asked to leave notes of inspiration and encouragement for their co-workers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but little did they know it would become this.
“This type of art is like just therapy for us, so everyone was really excited just to lend a helping hand,” IRB Administrator at Memorial Health Chableau Ford said.
Workers filled out their messages while in the thick of treating patients with the infectious disease. Their notes now are on display encased beautifully by local artist, Tiffani Taylor. She donated her time and talent to this stroke of inspiration which took a total of three months to complete.
“I was brought to tears several times just reading you know the like the psalms and just excerpts from the bible and like personal anecdotes. It was very humbling to be able to as an artist to lend positivity to this hardship and to honor people who are risking their lives and they are the heroes of our community,” Taylor said.
Taylor said she made the two panels to coincide showing the solidarity of frontline workers and used the symbolism of the bluebird and cherry blossoms to depict their hope and optimism. Team members at Memorial know their fight against COVID-19 is long from over but say this meaningful artistic display on the hospital walls with their own sentiments will encourage them for years to come.
“It just reminds us that we’re resilient in what we are doing just to come to work every day. We all have families, we’re taking care of our patients and our visitors as well so we’re really excited about just from years to come when people actually see this artwork, they will be real excited about it,” Ford said.
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