Five Years

As we move towards Purim, I am struck by the fact that this is the first time, since 2020, that our entire senior care organization has been engaged in planning a full-scale celebration. For many years, we held decorating contests in our buildings and the creativity was extraordinary. We had Purim costume parades, Megillah readings, Purim spiels and the like. Nothing was more fun for elders and staff than this spring holiday.

On March 10, 2020, we held our Purim festivities, we paraded in our costumes, we held our decorating contest, we ate hamantaschen and compared our favorite flavor choices. We knew that there was a virus out there, a virus that had begun to surface in the United States in January. We knew that there was a case in New Jersey that had been diagnosed on March 4. But, despite knowing that, despite having spent months preparing, going into lockdown on March 21 was still a major, unsettling shock.

I look back at Purim 2020 as the last moments of normalcy in a world that turned upside down. Initially, there were cases all around us. We knew that communities had large outbreaks. We knew that hospitals were full to overflowing. But our buildings, full of elders, were quiet. Until they weren’t. The virus made its presence known, causing significant illness and death. There were, at one time, more than 100 members of our 500-person staff who were ill. There were elders throughout our buildings who were ill. And no one had any answers for us. We sought guidance from State and national sources and read everything that came our way. No one knew what to do to prevent or treat and help was nonexistent.

Early on in this battle, and it was a battle, we were told by a physician that they thought we could just offer “comfort care” because “they were all going to die.” Our response to that was both instantaneous and unanimous, a firm and convicted “Not on my watch.” We emulated everything we heard that hospitals were doing. We created our own COVID diet. We built temporary isolation units. We found PPE from likely and unlikely places. We did any job that needed to be done. We forged ahead through the fear, through the challenges, through the shortages . . . and we saved many, many lives.

As we stand here, five years later, we are all wiser and stronger. We have learned to take nothing for granted and we have learned that we must rely on ourselves. We know that nothing is more important than the health and wellbeing of our elders and our staff and that we will do anything and everything to safeguard all of these individuals. And we know, with certainty, that our team can, and will, overcome any obstacles in our path.

On my desk, even now, is a note from my grandson who was 6 years old at the time.  His careful printing reads “These may be hard times. But we can have hope. These may be hard times now but it will get better.” Wise words from a small child, wise words we all must remember. We have lived through those “hard times” and we have come out the other side. And, as much as we hope and pray that this kind of crisis could not occur again, we also know that we are ready, that we can face hard times head on and that we can and will prevail.