NPR News and Music Discovery for the Four Corners

Bobby McCoskey, 55: Semisonic's 'Closing Time'

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In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Two years later, more than a million people have died in the United States from the disease. To put a face on this number and pay respect to the departed, NPR asked our audience to share songs that reminded them of a loved one lost to COVID-19. What follows are individual stories of those who have passed, those mourning them and the songs that continue to unite them.


My brother was intellectually disabled. Bobby attended dances that were organized for disabled people. He liked this song because they played it at the dances. He was even prom king one year. —Debra McCoskey-Reisert, sister

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