On the day he was to be married, we mourned the loss of our friend Tim Liszewski and celebrated the love he shared with his fiancee, Maris Burton. More than 100 of his friends and family gathered online to share stories, read poems, play music, and toast a life well lived.

Tim died unexpectedly on March 28 at the Columbia home he shared with Maris. He had recently returned from an Indivisible conference in Wisconsin.

On Sunday, Tim was listed on the front page of the New York Times along with 999 others, their names representing just 1% of Americans dead since the pandemic hit. “Toward the end of May in the year 2020,” the paper reported, ” the number of people in the United States who have died from the coronavirus neared 100,000 — almost all of them within a three-month span.”

South Carolina numbers are hard to trust, as the state has been opaque about testing and contact tracing, and has dragged its feet in setting clear public protocols. In fact, last month the Palmetto State earned an “F” for its handling of the pandemic thus far.

A few Network members put together a video for Tim’s homegoing, a movement tune we have sung for years at meetings and conferences. It is a June Jordan poem set to music. You can see our interpretation of it here.

It was a bittersweet afternoon remembering Tim and holding Maris in a virtual group hug. We will miss him.