Woman Plants Flags Honoring Cape COVID-19 Victims, Including Dad

HYANNIS, MA — Denise Harris lost her father to the coronavirus, and now she's helping other Cape Cod residents honor their loved ones who died from the pandemic.

Harris and volunteers spent their weekend planting hundreds of flags at the rotary by the Barnstable Municipal Airport. Each flag represents a Cape Cod resident's death and serves as a memorial for the many families who couldn't have a normal funeral amid the pandemic. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 462 Cape Cod residents have died, as of Tuesday afternoon.

Harris, an airport employee, lost her father, Dennis Brandao, 77, on Jan. 26. She said her father wore many hats, working as an Uber driver and at Safe Harbor, a shelter for women and children who became homeless after suffering domestic violence. According to Harris, Brandao was the type of guy who would "give anyone the shirt off his back."

When Brandao died, Massachusetts was in the middle of its winter COVID-19 surge. Harris was only allowed up to 20 people at the funeral.

"After he passed away, I had a lot of guilt because the family can't be there, and there's not a lot of closure," Harris said.

Harris said she started the flag project to keep her busy. For her, it's therapeutic and also helps a lot of people going through the same thing.

"The victims that passed away from COVID-19 kind of got robbed," Harris said. "I just wanted to let people know their families are being thought of. We can memorialize them and let the family know they won't be forgotten."

Harris said she got the idea for the flags because her cousin owns a flag store in Centerville, the Flag Man Sports Store. For families that gave permission, Harris took the small, yellow and red flags and wrote the victims' names, towns and date of death on them.

The flag memorial will stay up at the rotary until June 6.