to everyone who has a loved one in a long term care facility:

[orleans]

my heart goes out to you AND your loved one(s)

i was just reading a thread on du and it is heartbreaking
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213411307#top

my parents have been gone for quite awhile but i often think of how we would be handling this (and i know for a fact we wouldn't be handling it well). i'd be losing my mind over it.

the lockdown seemed horrible enough (although necessary) but now the room isolation... i can't even imagine.

i am so absolutely sorry and heartbroken (and even horrified) that people in these facilities are having to go through this

i can't change it, i can't stop it, or fix it. but how i wish i could.

to all of you on the inside and those on the outside please know one thing is for certain:
YOU ARE LOVED.
you are loved. you are loved. you are loved. you are loved. you are loved.

[mopinko]

1. i lost my sister 2 years ago after a decade in a nursing home, and

i cant tell you how many times i have thought about how glad i am that she isnt there for this.

i'm a hospice volunteer, and we are shut out. it has blasted a hole in my heart already. and my nurses. damn. i was mostly there for families w my therapy dog, but i always made sure the nurses got their biff time.
and now i'm not there, and i feel like they are almost walled up in our unit.

i feel like the world has just cracked right open.

[orleans]

2. i went through a long, difficult struggle with grief over my mom's death

in 2009. she was in a nursing home for just a week (palliative care). she was supposed to come home for hospice. we never made it that far. i brought home her ashes on the day she was due to come home.

through this trump era i have frequently thought how my parents would not be able to believe what is happening to this country.

but this is the first time, this virus time, that i have thought (like you have about your sister) that i'm so glad my mom isn't here to be a part of it.

if this was a movie the plot line would seem too far-fetched and implausible

i'm sorry you have lost the connection with those important people in your life.

this whole shit storm is beyond belief.

take good care.

[mopinko]

3. thx honey.

i actually have been able to do a few things for my agency, but i am planning to drop off a care package at my unit for my nurses.
i always brought them some plants from my plant sales. i'd bring a few leftover flats of tomatoes and such, and those that got them were happy and those the missed out were a little bit mad.

this thing has made me change how i do business, like everyone. turns out it works way better for me, like many. there is room here to safely shop/browse, and folks are grateful for that. and so am i.
but i did a lot of the chatting/advising through my fb page. so, i will email the staff, and this time i'll see what folks actually want.
and bring a dinner, too. the unit is at rush hospital, so i'll grab them something good from one of the great italian joints in the hood.
i never used to grab dinner down that way because i wasnt gonna make good old biff ride home smelling al's italian beef, when i never give my dogs people food.

i'll bring biff and my therapy dog in training w me, tho they cant come squeeze them unless they are coming off shift. but we will wave from the window.

i had a dear friend who lost her 30yo son to an overdose in all this, and i actually kinda invited myself to visit her.
i have seen some broken family members in the 5 years i have been doing this, including 3 sibs who sat around the bed of their 40 yo brother as he did of cirrhosis, and they seemed like they were having a party compared to this lady.
she had told almost no one, but her brother is my bff, and he told me.
for this first time since this started i felt a little ghoulish. i was just so happy to be there for her when there she was so alone.
her poor hubs doesnt know what to say to her. i had only met him once, but we had both heard a million stories about the other. she wasnt home when i got there, so he and i chatted for a while. he got to vent, and i gave him a little perspective.
i wasnt expecting to see my friend, but he was there, and i was so happy to see him, too.

talked to him for the first time since just yesterday, and he told me that when i left she broke down in sobs on the floor of 'that was so sweet of moooooooooo'
i told him that as strange as it may sound, that made me so happy.
i had talked to my middle kid about it all, as she knew the kid a little. i told her that i felt a bit weird about it, but that i apparently had a gift for this stuff, and i felt a strong duty to use it.

i cant say for sure why i chose this work. i usually just say that i was inspired by our own mucifer, who is a ped hospice nurse. i work for the same agency.
having a dog like biff makes all this so easy. i joke that he does all the work, and all i do it hold the leash and drive the car. one of those jokin, not jokin things. but i really do mostly just be myself. and folks sure let me in.

i'm glad i know that tears are good for you, and cleansing.
cuz i dont think this old brain has been this clean in decades.