Minnesota families grieve loved ones lost to COVID-19 after grim milestone

The grave stone of a COVID-19 victim.

For Kris Osojnicki, 400,000 dead from COVID-19 is more than a monumental figure, it is overwhelming loss and grief for so many.

She knows the pandemic stole her best friend and life partner Clark, at the age of 56, in April.

"There’s so many people who have suffered the same path as I have suffered and my heart goes out to every one of them," said Osojnicki.

She said it’s been a "tough path to hoe," and she tries to take it day-by-day.

On Tuesday evening, the incoming President and Vice President honored all the lives lost to COVID-19 at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. It was Joe Biden’s first Washington, D.C. event ahead of his inauguration.

Team Biden encouraged all Americans to come together for a national moment of unity and remembrance by placing a lit candle in the window.

"Having that opportunity to memorialize her any way we can, it’s just a way to process through some of that grief," said Ginger Gese, who also honored a love one lost to COVID-19 complications.  

Gese and her loved ones honored their late mom Carol Geretschlaeger, of Andover, who died at the age of 80.

"I can’t even describe the pain," she said. "Sorry, I haven’t been able to move past it."