VANCOUVER, Wash. — The green ribbons that once hung outside Jim Mains' house in Vancouver are no longer blowing in the wind. They were small and light, but represented the heavy toll the deadly virus has taken on those that have died from the novel coronavirus in Washington state.
Each ribbon represented a life lost to COVID-19.
"We just felt like we needed to do something a little bit more reflective for the community to show the seriousness of what this virus is doing," Jim said.
Every day, he and his 4-year-old son would hang the ribbons after checking to see if the death toll had risen.
"I think we had a few days where we only had to put up 2 ribbons and that was a shock," Jim said. "There really was not one day - we had them up for 130 days. Every day we put up ribbons."
As the weeks and months kept going and more ribbons kept were hung, Jim started to feel the burden of those that had died. He felt himself getting more angry at the fact that the virus hadn't slowed down.
In his own neighborhood, Jim says the virus hit close to home. He says had it not been for COVID-19, two of his neighbors would still be alive.
"I think that started really getting to me, that this is serious.," Jim said. "We need to be wearing masks and we need to social distance and we need to take care of each other, and it felt like more and more people were taking care of just themselves."
Outside Jim's house, it is normal to see decorations around every holiday. He runs a Facebook page about the different decorations and events planned outside his house. Everything from snow on Christmas, eggs at Easter and trick-or-treating on Halloween.
This year will be no different.
"We're really going to pick it up this year and make it really special for the community so people can drive by and have a sense of something normal," Jim said about his upcoming Halloween decorations.
His page not only shows decorations, but also the growing tribute outside the house.
A few weeks ago, Jim posted that the ribbons would be taken down at the end of August. On Sunday, August 29 Jim started clipping the ribbons off the fence. Monday morning, he finished the job. Each ribbon reminding him of the lives they represented.
"Originally we thought we'd have 700 ribbons, that's kind of what the early projections were. We ended with 1,905," Jim said.
1,905 ribbons were taken down.
"We felt like with school being basically going online and everything's going to be different this year, we felt like we needed to come back to some sense of normalcy," said Jim.
His wrought iron fence is back to the way it looked before the pandemic hit, but the empty fence line isn't something he's taking lightly.
"There was this sense of relief - it was kind of strange - but also a sense of disappointment that it's not over."