Like many of our stories, this is a story of a hardworking businessman and devoted father and grandfather, named Dennis Brandao. This is also a love story about the strong unbreakable bond between a father and a daughter – a bond that transcends time, and even death. This is a story about a woman who is transforming her pain and turning it into something beautiful in her plight to honor her father’s memory – and that of the other nearly 450 victims who succumbed to this terrible virus this past year on Cape Cod.

Dennis, who owned Dennis John Formals for 38 years, recently passed away from COVID-19. The local Cape Verdean-owned business had several locations across the Cape.

When my good friend Denise shared with me what she is doing to honor her father – and the other nearly 450 COVID victims on Cape Cod – I was moved to tears and knew I had to do whatever was in my power to help amplify her efforts.

I came to know this wonderful family almost 20 years ago. My friendship with both Denise Brandao Harris and her father began when I worked with them both at Safe Harbor, a local domestic violence shelter. And although Denise and I were more like ships passing in the night – relieving each other from our alternating shifts – Dennis and I worked side by side together, on and off for years. As the head of the shelter’s security, Dennis had a natural protective nature about him. Something that put me and everyone else at ease as the threat of a client’s abuser showing up at any given moment was always a possibility (and did in fact happen on my shift once).

Dennis worked at the shelter mainly for the health insurance benefits, while he also ran his own businesses and was an active member in the NAACP, Kiwanis Club, and St. Anthony’s Cape Verdean Club. He would spend hours telling me stories about Denise and his two grandsons, Devon and Jaden. He was a loving and super supportive father and grandfather. As a woman who grew up without a father of my own, I remember being a little envious of Denise and thinking I wish I had a dad like Dennis.

As my friendship with Denise and my coworker relationship with Dennis grew over the years, Dennis took me in almost like a daughter – making sure to invite me to his family BBQ because he knew I did not have any family here, and he knew I needed to be in his words, “around my culture and my own people.” He also had Puerto Rican relatives (my people), and when I decided to get married at the tender age of 20,with very little support and resources, Dennis offered to suit up all the men in my wedding in the latest tuxedos, free of charge.

He was a solid guy – always there to help a friend, and would even go to the local high schools to measure kids and drop off tuxedos for prom out of the kindness of his heart.

Denise, like her dad, always worked a couple of jobs as a single mother of two growing boys, and still found a way to be an incredible mom. Always getting to their games and karate events and baking homemade treats from scratch for their class and team events. I would always comment about how she put the rest of us moms to shame as we all worked two to three jobs as well, but when our kids needed baked goods you better believe the rest of us were making pit stops at the bakery section in our local grocery stores and picking up some premade brownies and cupcakes – because ain’t nobody got time for all that!

Whenever I would comment about Denise putting the rest of us mothers to shame, she would comment with a compliment as sweet as her homemade treats and say something like, “Tara what I do for my family you do for our community. We’re both superwomen just with different superpowers.”

Always a supportive friend, showing up at community events I’d helped organize over the years – with her sleeves rolled up ready to put some work in – that is the kind of person Denise is. As solid a person as her father.

And as you can imagine as his only child and daughter, Denise has been beside herself with grief since her father’s death. Unable to find a local one-to-one grief support resource to help her through her anguish, she knew she had to do something to honor her father’s death.

And so, this is where the real story comes in and hopefully where you can all help. – Tara Vargas Wallace

Hello,

My name is Denise Harris, and I am starting up a Cape Cod Covid Victim Memorial for all the residents we lost on the Cape. My father Dennis Brandao was one of the Covid victims who passed away in January.

Since his death, I have been trying to find a way to honor him and the other victims and their families. While I watched other towns memorialize their victims, I noticed there was nothing done on the Cape. So, I reached out to the Town of Barnstable, the BPD, State Rep Kip Diggs and Mass Dot.

Everyone so far has jumped on board and is willing to back me in whatever way is needed. We all seem to think it would be great for our town and the community.

I am in the process of purchasing 500 flags and hopefully having the victim’s names, towns and date of their passing printed on them and placing them on the Hyannis Airport Rotary for the month of May.

I have started a Go Fund Me Account for the donations towards the flags at gofundme.com/f/honoringourcapecodcovidvictims. I would like to get the following press release out to the public.

I need to get the word out to any families that would like their loved ones honored. Thank you in advance for any help you can give to contribute to making this memorial happen. Please feel free to contact me at any time.

Thank you.
Denise Harris
508-274-9648

Press Release:

Have you lost a loved one to Covid-19? To honor all our Cape Cod Covid victims, we will be placing flags in their memory at the Airport Rotary in Hyannis in the month of May. The community members and local businesses have made donations to support this event at no cost for the Covid victim’s families.

We would like to recognize any Cape Cod resident who has lost their life by Covid-19 by having their name, town and date of passing printed on a flag. For the families that do not wish to have their loved ones information printed on a flag, we intend to still place an empty flag for each Cape Codder who has passed away due to Covid. If you have a family member or loved one that has died from this vicious virus and would like to memorialize them through this event by having their information printed on a flag, please contact covidvictimsofcapecod@yahoo.com with their information by April 23, 2021. Please include a contact name and phone number.

Lets get her story out there. If you’re able to donate, great but more importantly we need to reach the families of the victims in order to get permission for Denise to honor them in this way. If you are a family member or know anyone on Cape Cod who’s passed away from COVID this year please contact Denise. It takes a village. Humanity is never as beautiful as when we are helping each other heal.