Doing our Part to Benefit the World

“I am not doing this just for me, but for the benefit of the whole world”, one of our Handmaker residents commented just before he received his second dose of the Moderna vaccine last Thursday, February 4^th. He was one of over 96% of our residents and 87% of our staff members who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, administered at one of the vaccine clinics held at Handmaker by Walgreens. Each resident and staff member was also doing their part to protect themselves, protect those around them and to benefit the world.

After nearly one year of a pandemic, this was finally a light at the end of a very long tunnel. There have been other moments of brightness along the way, as we tried to keep residents connected, as well as safe. As our activity department got creative with one on one programming, and we all got much more familiar with FaceTime, Duo and Zoom so that residents could still see their family members and participate in religious services and other programming. And our wonderful few months of outdoor visits with our hugging booth when the COVID rates in Arizona dipped down low enough to have them. But those were just little breaks, this is different. Are we getting to the end of this thing?

Abel just wants to see his grandson in person. Patsy has been feeling “awfully lonely”, and cannot wait to congregate with friends in the common areas of Handmaker again. Evie misses walking along the hallways throughout the building like she used to before COVID. Barb is feeling optimistic, and can’t wait to have a little more freedom again, and to get a haircut! Despite a bit of isolation, Mort says that he has felt safe and secure at Handmaker throughout, but he will feel even more so with the vaccine. Doris is so grateful to be have gotten vaccinated, and hopes that it works for everyone. And Elaine thanked Handmaker for arranging for the vaccination clinics at Handmaker. She says that she watches the news and sees how difficult it has been for some people to get vaccinated. Elderly people waiting in cars for hours, or having difficulty registering for vaccinations on the internet. She is so glad that she could just walk to the Great Room at Handmaker to get hers.

Everyone is anxious to get back to normal again. But how quickly can we? And what will normal look like? Well it’s all about what is going on outside the walls of Handmaker, as much as inside. We need the positivity rate in Pima County to continue to go down, and we need to keep COVID out of the building. And while we cannot really control the first part of that, we are doing all we can to control the second part.

So, when will we get to normal? We will just have to wait and see. Normal may not look like the old normal for a while, but we just got one step closer. Our residents are hopeful. We should all be hopeful. Now if everyone would please do their parts and mask up, physically distance, and get vaccinated as soon as they can, doing their part to the benefit the world, then we will get there a whole lot sooner!