A pandemic has the ability to warp even the memorial service held to commemorate its victims.

After Gov. Jared Polis descended the Capitol steps with his fiance Friday night, the two sat in chairs socially distanced. The audience’s seats were also kept apart. The crowd was just a few dozen strong: Polis’s office advertised the Friday night service as a virtual event, blocking any sizable group from forming. Applause sounded muffled.

Polis removed and donned his mask repeatedly as he took the lectern and returned to his seat. The horn quintet who opened the event pulled on black masks when they weren’t playing.

The Capitol building behind him was bathed in magenta light, which Polis said represented love and compassion. The steps to the Capitol were peppered with electric candles, many in stemless wine glasses.

Polis told the audience the pandemic was a “once-in-a-generation” event. It was more than that: a once-in-a-century calamity that has killed more than half a million Americans.

The musicians seated next to the podium played a mournful piece written in the early 20th century, three years before Spanish influenza killed more than 7,500 Coloradans in a matter of months, during a worldwide outbreak that felled millions. 

COVID-19 was first identified in Colorado a year ago Friday and has since killed nearly 6,000. The first fell on March 13, in Colorado Springs. Polis issued a stay-at-home order 12 days later.

Polis spoke of the first death and his “solemn” drive to the south, where he warned that the state was at a “tipping point.” 

“We simply couldn’t have imagined – we never imagined, not just how drastically our lives would change this last year but also how many Coloradans would be forced to contract and fight this deadly virus,” he said.

The losses include a Special Olympian high schooler and a former superintendent, a career firefighter and a Colorado Springs church volunteer. The dead are “our grandmothers and grandfathers, our moms and dads, our brothers and sisters, our aunts and uncles, and yes, in some cases, our sons and daughters,” Polis said.

The pandemic robbed Colorado of many of its most vulnerable and oldest residents.

“At times, the grief and loss has felt unbearable,” Polis said, after naming two friends felled by the virus. 

Polis has found optimism in recent weeks. Vaccine, which Friday night he called a triumph of modern science, has fanned that hope.

“But out of our pain, out of our sacrifice, out of our suffering, we’ve summoned a great internal reservoir of strength and reliance that lives deep in our DNA as Coloradans,” he said. 

After speaking for nearly 20 minutes, he introduced Mary Louise Lee, Mayor Michael Hancock’s wife and an accomplished singer who was joined by the horns in  “Amazing Grace.”

When the song was done, Polis retook the lectern.

“There are brighter days ahead,” he said, “but today is a time for us to reflect on where we’ve been and who we’ve lost.”

After a plea for Coloradans to wear masks, he pulled his back on.