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retirement home
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2021-01-27
Covid-19 Vaccines Mean an End to Isolation at a Retirement Home
Retirement home residents have started to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. For many, this means they can visit loved ones in different care units and see family. However, high COVID-19 rates are keeping some retirement and other care homes from letting their residents visit or have visitors. -
2021-01-25
COVID-19 Stats and Story
Coronavirus happened so quickly. It is difficult to recall details from March 14 2020. The day my family and thousands of others went into quarantine. March 14 2021 is approaching quickly. Back then it seemed like nobody knew anybody who had the virus. It was all rumors and stories. Now it seems like everybody knows or has had Coronavirus. A prediction is that 1 in 3 people in LA county have had Coronavirus, which is totally insane. Los Angeles county has over 10,000,000 residents. Meaning that about 33,333,333+ people have been infected, many without knowing. Although it is an estimate, that shows how serious this virus is. 1000-3000 (about) people in America die due to Coronavirus each day. About 15,000 people die each day worldwide. There have been almost 100,000,000 Coronavirus cases and 2 Million deaths. 1/70 of the world has been diagnosed, not including those who are asymptomatic and those who were not or do not have access to tests. About 2 million people have died. That is 1/50 of those diagnosed. Seeing these numbers shocks me. It opens my eyes and makes me realize how truly important it is the wear a mask and to be safe. My grandpa, I call him Papa, is getting the first dose of his Coronavirus vaccine tomorrow. I am so excited that he will have immunity. There are 11 cases of Coronavirus in his 200 person retirement home. He is 84 years old. I am so glad that Papa will be safe. He was widowed when my grandma, Grammy about 11 years ago, so I believe she had been his guardian angel just as she has been mine. My final thought is that I cannot wait for Coronavirus to be cured and for the vaccine to have wider distribution. -
10/19/2020
Maria Carney Oral History, 2020/10/19
I interview my maternal (and only living) grandmother over the phone about her experience of Covid while primarily self-isolating in her mobile home. There is not so much direct question and answer but over the course of a somewhat rambling conversation pretty much all the topics get covered. Although she remains pretty spry for her age, there are some places where she loses the thread or misunderstands the conversation. -
07/29/2020
Gwendolyn Way Oral History, 2020/07/29
An interview with Gwendolyn "Gwen" Way regarding her experience living in a retirement home during the pandemic. Gwen discusses the changes made by the residence where she lives to prevent an introduction or spread of the virus, as outbreaks in Long Term Care facilities have been common in Canada, and how it has effected her life within the home and her relationship with the world outside it. She compares and contrasts this lockdown and pandemic with the 19 months she spend in a sanatorium being treated for tuberculosis (TB) many years ago. The fear of the unknown and desperation at the lack of a firm end date are ideas which Gwen returns to repeatedly. -
2020-05-25
Emotional Toll
I work at a prominent community college in California. When we first started hearing about the virus we took precautions right away in the office. First those employees over 65 were sent home to work remotely, because they were identified early on as being a risk group. Then we decided as a college to take all of the on ground classes and convert them to online for the remainder of the spring semester. Shortly after that, most all of the faculty and students were sent home to shelter in place. Those remaining were the lab classes in the industrial arts area and some CTE programs. Staff remained on campus and weeks went by as we continued to operate the college. Slowly staff were asked to work remotely from home, taking their work home with them. Division Offices remained open, as did the IT and Facility areas. The community continued to walk in the door with concerns and questions. Some of us felt we were at risk of infection, because no one really knew much about the virus at this point. I personally felt the effects of stress building. We were asked if we would like to begin working from home in mid-March by our supervisor, but there still wasn’t a directive from the District, so I was concerned. I took work home and my plants, not knowing if and when I would return, because of my age; almost 62. I worked remotely for seven days and then over the next weekend I became incapacitated, due to stress not only regarding the virus, family dynamics, elder care and stress of trying to do my work from a makeshift home office. I was out of the office for nine weeks, while my doctors prescribed slow acting medicines. I came out of my depressed state and now there are still so many things we don’t know about the virus. Besides the toll on me physically and emotionally I also saw a huge chunk of my retirement disappear, as the stock market tumbled. $40K lost out of one account alone. At my age I’ll likely never recover. I expect there will be fallout in other areas as well. While we were all wondering where we could go to buy toilet paper and disinfectant wipes, airlines were parking their planes, car rentals were parking their fleets and the housing market became a whole new game. Where will this all end up is anyone’s guess. What it has done is, the virus has been the great equalizer. Were all in this together. It knows no boundaries except that seniors appear to be the hardest hit group and are accounting for the largest percentage of deaths. On a personal note, I have not been able to meet my new grandson who was born on Mother’s Day because of Covid risk concerns my daughter has and I have to respect that and meet him over the Internet. My own Mom is 81 and will no longer accept a hug from me. It’s just sad. Dianne Nau