The barber chair where Sherman Peebles used to cut hair on Saturdays sits empty at Overflo Beauty and Barber Shop in Columbus, Ga., Wednesday, March 9, 2022. In late September, as Peebles, who also worked as a sheriff's deputy, lay in a hospital bed, COVID-19's toll reached 675,000, surpassing the number of Americans killed by the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago. He died at age 49 the next day. Months later, his best friend and shop owner, Gerald Riley, still arrives at the shop each Saturday expecting to see Peebles' truck parked outside. At day's end, he thinks back to the routine he and his friend of 25 years always followed when closing. "I love you, brother," they'd tell one another. How could Riley have known those would be the last words they'd ever share? (AP Photo/David Goldman)
