eventually invaded even our smallest towns leaving no part of our country untouched. covid took from us americans of every age, gender and race. ultimately it would exact a far greater toll on communities of color, but no group of americans has been spared. hey, everyone. i'm nicolle wallace. over the past year we've been honored to share with you the stories of some of those we have lost and to tell you about their lives, lives well-lived. their stories were all so beautifully unique, but they were united by two undeniable truths. they all ended too soon, and they each left behind an entire family or community for whom life would never be the same. for so many the losses exacerbated by how our loved ones died. in many cases alone or in the company of a devoted but exhausted nurse or doctor. many families have had to say good-bye forever on an ipad or a cell phone. the past year has been nothing short of a sweeping and historic american tragedy. so in a humble effort to honor those losses tonight we celebrate the lives of those we have lost and the families left behind. nbc's chris jansing who bravely shared the loss of her own aunt to covid starts us off. >> have a very, very great friday. >> bonnie would laugh if you called her a model but she was at christmas modeling her handmade lighted mask. early in the pandemic she started sewing masks to give away making 3,000 in all. a simple mission to protect others but in the end bonnie could not protect herself. >> i don't know that i've ever met anybody that didn't love bonnie. she is just a kind of person. she wasn't done doing her mission but someone else felt time for her. i got the vaccination on sunday and bonnie should have been there with me. she was this close. five weeks away from getting vaccinated. >> it's the devastating reality of covid-19. the funerals never held. the good-byes never said. the human touch never felt as they pass from this world, including susan braley, mother to seven adopted children, 300 foster kids, her florida home filled with love and laughter and lifer but in death without any of that family by her side. kayly dillard never got to hold her newborn baby morgan, dying of covid soon after giving birth. by late march 1,000 americans would be gone. by may, 100,000. many of them health care workers, especially nurses and people of color. er doctor frank gabrin died after texting about worries over a lack of ppe. victims on the front lines of an escalating war. 250,000 gone by november. including veterans who had survived foreign wars only to lose to this unseen enemy. like tuskegee airman theodore ted who stayed active until coronavirus hit and then died just shy of his 101st birthday. this rabbi was a hall cost survivor who saved 56 families lives, but coronavirus took him at 91. to endure such grief perhaps we rationalize, but they were old, but they had pre-existing conditions. in truth but for covid they'd likely still be with us. to teach, to rescue dogs, simply to love. dick and shirly of ohio had just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary when they died minutes apart. margaret and jimmy shaw grew up together in georgia, eloped at 17 and stayed together for six decades. music lovers johnny lee and cathee peoples of north carolina together since they were teenagers died on the same day in the same icu room holding hands. and so much promise cut short. >> i know he's watching ever us now. i know he's probably dancing in heaven. >> towering baritone antoine hodge achieving a milestone on the stage in september. in february his extraordinary voice was silenced. >> he was my best friend, and it's still hard for me to accept the reality he won't be back. >> what would you want people to know about an continue? >> that he was a pure, kind soul. >> antoine was just 38. we've learned the hard way that covid doesn't spare the young or even the very young. kimmy linem had been a healthy, happy 9-year-old. 5-year-old skieler herbert was the only child of two first responders. >> we miss everything, just everything about her. >> 9-year-old jj was running around playing one morning, by the next day he was gone. about to start fourth grade. and a 13-year-old from missouri, his mom's little buddy. >> he was kind. he was funny. he was a jokester. >> how do you even begin to process this kind of loss? another 13-year-old named madeleine started a memorial quilt. one square made with a piece of ana carter's dress who was 13, too, when she was taken by covid. in california carla began folding origami cranes as a kind of therapy. thousands of them now suspended on copper wires. >> the origami crane is the symbol of carrying the soul into the heavens. these are representing the people we've lost, and they're flying together. so they are not alone, and we are not alone. >> and in a community garden in phoenix out of all this death comes life in the form of newly planted, providing a place to mourn, to contemplate and to celebrate lives well-lived. like these. ♪♪ >> may all your dreams come true and you live happily ever after. >> bonnie mccloud leaves five adoring grandchildren. to honor her memory 16-year-old ali is still making masks just like her nana taught her. what do you miss about her the most? >> just her hugs and time together. i look back now and i think of everything we got to do in the last months and because of the masks we worked together when i would have been so busy doing other things. instead we got to be here with each other. >> a shared legacy woven of cloth and thread and love. those masks are such a beautiful way for ali to remember her grandmother. and these cranes, carly started making them but then she got thousands of them from a teacher in north dakota, senior citizens in ohio, buddhist monks in tibet. it's such a powerful visual reminder of the enormity of what we've lost but also of peoples desire to come together to deal with that staggering loss. if there was one crane for every american who died of covid it would fill this space 42 times. and we don't have a handbook for how to deal with the enormity of that. so whether it's making a crane or making a mask or planting a tree or just telling a story, it's important, it's a way for people to move forward, a way to have hope and to feel they're not alone. >> chris jansing, thank you is wholly inadequate. bless you and thank you for being a part of this and with me. i'm grateful. >> thank you. this past year we've learned a lot about the power of human connection. both the isolation when we're forced to go without it and the importance of re-establishing connections through whatever means possible when we're hurting. one of the worst experiences of the last year has been endured by those who have experienced the loss of a loved one and have had to grieve in the time of lockdowns. martin adenson, he was living his dream of being a loving dad to his 2-year-old daughter and 6 month old son when he lost his month long battle with covid in april. his wife pamela remembers the laughter, remembers martin singing to their kids, his silly pun competitions, all the little things he did to make her and them feel special. inspired by a sympathy card she received from another mom pamela decided to create a facebook support group, young widowers and widowers of covid-19 now about 450 strong. the group offers healing, a place for grief and remembrance and the comfort that someone is always there. pamela's efforts touched laura when it was her time to grieve. laura says she felt instant loneliness when her husband died from covid on christmas eve at just 33 years old. their daughter had just turned 1 days before. the group has given laura support and advice. they've checked up on her frequently, and they helped her realize that it's okay sometimes to not be okay. pamela addison and laura join us now. pamela, tell me about before the loss. tell me about your husband as a father and a husband. >> he was just so full of life and had such a presence to him that i just truly miss. you saw in that video him rocking the two kids and the laughter he elicits from my daughter, it's empty now because he doesn't do that anymore. and just seeing that smile on his face that lit up his eyes because he was just living his dream, he just loved being a daddy. he loved being a husband. he would just do anything and everything for all of us. and i just totally miss that. he just brought laughter and fun into our lives, and it's definitely missing in our life now. >> how are you? >> i mean, i still have my good and bad days. it's quite the loss. i never expected to be a widow at 36. and just going through trying to figure out life and the new me because definitely has changed my life drastically. so i feel like i have my good days and my bad days and creating this group definitely has given me a lot of joy and hope because i know i'm helping others. >> where did you find that in your darkness time to dig down and create something to help others? where did that come from? >> i was doing a lot of writing and one of my pieces got pub learned on new jersey.com and i decided i would share it with other people because i wanted my story to be told, because i wasn't hearing a lot about younger people dieing and because my husband was young i thought i want to share my story and once i posted it on to several different covid groups on facebook, i couldn't believe how many comments i got that said, oh my goodness, that was my story. i thought i was alone. so a week after i did that i decided i would start this group because i did not think it was okay for someone to feel alone like that. >> laura, that spoke to you and your husband rigo was young, too. tell us about him. >> he was my gentle giant. he was a caring and loving man. he had a great personality and everyone gravitated to him. he was funny, sarcastic. he loved spending time with his family and friends. he had this just large, beautiful smile. and he always made sure to tell everyone how much he loved them at all-times. he was just excited to be a father. he had 11 beautiful months with his daughter. he just loved singing to her and making funny noises. and just was so eager to teach her so many beautiful things. >> how's she doing? >> she's a ball of joy. she is so much like him. loving, caring, everyone gravitates towards her. she is just a happy baby right now. >> how are you doing, mama? >> i'm hanging in there. i'm trying every day. >> you both have talked about you, laura, watching through a window. you, pamela, mouthed i love you before your husband got in an ambulance. can i ask you both just to talk about being unable to say good-bye? laura? >> that moment was probably the hardest experience of my life. watching from a window outside of his room. thankfully i had that opportunity to go to the hospital. but watching him, feeling that utter hopelessness and hopelessness. i couldn't do anything to save him. the doctors couldn't do anything anymore. and i just remember just tapping and hitting the window saying i'm sorry, i'm sorry they couldn't do anything. >> pamela -- and, pamela, this is the stark underbelly of grief, the last moments and you both so bravely shared them and what unites your group of 450 and growing. but you, too, had -- you had the final moment that you have shared, too, where you mouthed i love you. >> yeah. when he was coming down the steps of our house i was holding our son and i just mouthed i love you. not thinking that that was going to be the last time i saw him ever again. but i'm glad i had that moment because i did see him but for 26 days i didn't get to go to the hospital and hold his hand and that's all i wanted to do and i feel like that stolen good-bye is going to stick with me for the rest of my life because i wasn't there for him in his last moments. >> pamela, where in the process and in the sharing of the grief, where can people lift you up? what can people do? people want to help. what can people do? >> i feel like listen to us talk about what we're feeling. grief makes people uncomfortable but we need someone to listen and be there for us and i feel like that's the most valuable and not judging the grief saying, oh, i think you should be moving on but just listening and just not being judgmental. >> i think any opinions are squarely of both of you is heroes and i want to ask you the same question. what part of this, laura, can people on the outside do who can't imagine or fathom your grief? how can people sit with you? what can people do? >> it's a hard thing to answer because sometimes i just recognize that i have to get through every day. i think the biggest thing people did for me was to help me without asking me can i help you? they just did it. it took a lot to let others in and let others help. and like pamela mentioned listening without judging, listening without making it about you sometimes has been really helpful. >> i am in awe of you both. i'm so sorry for your loss and so grateful for letting us in and takes extraordinary courage and i thank you both for us. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you both so much. we're going to remember all of our stories and everyone that we get to talk to and i hope it's clear they take a leap of faith by spending their time with us. on the other side of a quick break we are going to be joined by senator elizabeth warren who will talk about her personal loss as well as her hope for the future. we'll be right back. why walgreens? 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>> so my first memory of my brother is when i was 3 years old and he was 19. and we'd driven to oklahoma city. my mother and i had driven him up there, and he was headed off to the air force. and he was dashing. he was handsome, and he was ready for an adventure. and he was always somebody who was just out on the front edge. he flew b-52s for 20 years. spent off and on six years in vietnam. he was -- he loved to fly and he loved his family. i didn't have any sisters. i just had the three brothers, and he married when i was about 6 when he married nancy. and she was this dark haired just great petty coats and wonderful shoes, fabulous clothes. and she used to give me things that had been hers that she had worn. they were -- they were everything, and had these two adorable little boys. i spent summers with them at the air force base in austin, texas. i'd take their two little boys and we'd hang out at the swimming pool all afternoon while don reid was out flying planes and nancy was keeping everything going at home. they had it all. and then -- and then nancy died when shortly after don reid retired from the air force. and he was with two boys. and then the boys grew up, he lost a lot of his -- a lot of his smile then but he was tough. and eventually he found a woman who'd been marry before as well, and they were nice to each other. they were good to each other. they took care of each other. and judy and don reid were a good pair. and mostly what i did is we'd get together when i'd go back to oklahoma city and my brother john and my brother david, and bruce would come along my husband sometimes, and don reid. and the three boys would tell stories about what ornery kids they'd been, and we'd laugh and we'd talk about our folks. and he was a good man. he was a good man. we didn't agree on everything. he was a cranky republican. it was true. >> i know a few. >> you do. but we -- no matter how much we disagree we ended every phone conversation with -- he'd say i love you, sis. and i'd say i love you too, brother. and then he got sick. and this was in early 2020. he got pneumonia, and he went to the hospital. judy got him to the hospital and they wanted to put him in the hospital, and hen he started getting better. but he'd been weak because he'd been lying down for a long time. so the question was -- now, remember this was february 2020. we don't know what's around the corner. and he -- he was sick but he was getting much better and he was time to be discharged from the hospital, and his doctor said go to a rehab center. just a couple of weeks, get your strength back where they'll get you up and exercising more. he wanted to go home and be with judy. he wanted to go home. and i urged him to go to the rehab center. i wanted him to be strong. i didn't want to take a chance he might fall or hurt himself. so he went to the rehab center, and he'd done his work and he's ready to come home. now we're into march and into april, and he's ready. and we had it all setup. he's going home on a thursday. and my brother's david is going to pick him up, we're good. and i talk to him -- i'm talking to him pretty much every day, every day twice a day. and so he said they tested me and he said i tested for covid, but he said i feel fine. he says it's ridiculous. so i said okay, and he kept saying -- every day i called him. now i was really getting anxious. i'd call him in the morning and call him at night, and every day he'd say nothing, i'm fine, i'm good. and finally after day after day of this it was going good, everything was great. and he said his doctor came by and he said my doctor said i'm too tough. he said maybe i'd had it before and maybe that's why i tested positive. he said i'm going to be over this. and then i called one morning and he wasn't there. and it turned out in the night he'd been taken to the hospital, and i never got to talk to him again and neither did his wife or his two boys or my brothers. we got what we could through the nurses, and god bless them. but they were stretched to the edges. and so we'd just get like these -- there's like a telegram that would just come in and say he's better and then they'd say he's worse, he's not going to make it through the night, the next day he's better. and then he took a turn for the worst. and they -- they called us and told us he was gone. and nobody was with him, not any of us. and i -- i don't know how he died. i don't know -- i don't know if he was cold or if he was thirsty. all i know is i couldn't be there to tell him how much i loved him and neither could the rest of our family. and that's hard. >> president biden has said that there comes a point where these memories make you smile before they make you cry. do you see that moment coming soon for you? >> i do. i had a lot of good years with my brother, and he had a lot of good years. and that's the part my other brothers, don reed's wife, judy and the boys and i, those are the parts we talk about. because, because that's what it means