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by Rosanne Mondrone
“Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” Emily Dickinson
Recovery is a very tricky thing. There are so many layers to consider when we begin to speak about it; the emotional, physical and spiritual tolls are present and then there is fear. Fear of the unknown and what life looks like once we open the door even a little. There are so many opinions about where we are and what we should be doing.
It’s really important after months of anguish, fear, sadness, exhaustion and confusion to see the light that is presenting itself. We are always hearing about the deaths and new cases. They do exist but what you don’t hear enough about are the recoveries, the victories, the battles won that give us hope. Each and every day our residents are recovering and going back to other levels of care or living, with better health, where they are. Our employees who were sick with Covid-19 are returning to work having recovered. Our team finds new solutions to problems that present themselves preventing new cases. The CDC, Department of Public Health and Leading Age offer tools and guidelines for success but Mary Wade has a very high standard of care. While the tools and guidance are appreciated and utilized our team sets higher standards to protect our own.
In times such as these patience really is a virtue. Recovery is slower than we would like to see. With 1/3 of Covid deaths happening in nursing homes the political blame game will rear its ugly head. We need to hold ours high. We faced an enemy like no other. We stopped its destruction dead in its tracks. We are all warriors here and will continue to be for as long as we have to protect our residents and families. So why is hope so important? Hope is an amazing thing that lightens our hearts, soothes our spirits and when it grounds itself in the soul can move mountains, especially, when fueled by gratitude and encouragement.
Every day we receive letters from families or emails with notes of gratitude and love. Community colleagues provide lunch, ice cream, hand lotions, masks, PPE gowns they’ve sewn at home, so we can feel supported. Neighbors get together and drive by placing signs of support on our fences, writing messages of encouragement with chalk on our sidewalks. They stand in the streets and shout out words of praise. Red hearts and thank you signs on trees, mailboxes and in windows of homes in our community are appreciated and say “We care; we are all in this together.”
It is so important, that as we turn this corner, we recognize the battles we’ve overcome and the victories we’ve had so we can start to peel off the layers of anger, sadness, frustration, confusion and fear. There are still battles to fight. We will have some setbacks as we go but the light is beginning to shine. We can lighten the armor we carry a little and embrace our victories; it will give us strength. It will make the next battle easier. We will win this war because “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all!”
Rosanne Mondrone, Director of Community Relations at Mary Wade
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