Two Years in a Pandemic

Receiving my first Covid-19 vaccine.
March 6, 2021  dwm photo

 Three days from now, March 23 marks two years since I was told to leave my office and work from home until further notice.

 A week earlier I was told after arriving at our east campus that our health experts didn't want employees moving from one campus to another over concerns the coronavirus might spread. 

 My final in-person visit was meeting a donor March 17 an hour before our Bistro closed in-person dining.

The morning of March 23, I drove to an off-campus office, but campus leaders decided if employees didn't need to be in resident contact they should go home.

Home-working took some effort.  My laptop needed software downloaded to access everything from home.  Ironically, the only place I could get that software in the off-campus office.  Thanks to our Information Technology specialist who was able to remotely accessing the computer to get me fully online.

I wasn't alone in thinking that most of us would be back in the office in a week or two but the first week was rough as we tried to reorient our efforts to visit donors in a locked down world.

Our team met through a telephone conference calls each Wednesday for updates and boosting each other's morale.  

Any gifts sent to the office languished in our mailbox.  Eventually we found a way to pick up the gifts, record the numbers, and enter the gifts into the database.  We personally called donors to let them know we received and appreciated their gift, but said it would be a while before we sent an acknowledgement letter.  No one worried about the delay.

Most of our time was on the phone.  We called to check in with people, it wasn't about gifts, it was to see how they were coping and be a friendly voice at the other end of the line.  One thing I took from our Covid protocols was the value of regular "check-in" calls, I'm still making lots of calls.

As the early Covid-19 lockdown stretched into summer, I was asked to offer rickshaw rides to assisted living residents.  It was outside, which was deemed safer than indoor activities, and allowed those shut in to get out for a ride around campus.

Those rides and masked visits to print thank you letters were my only appearances on the west campus until May 2021 when I returned.  The Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines were the reason.  Virtually 100% of residents received the shot and a high percentage of employees.  

Thanks to the vaccine and an on-going adherence to the local mask mandate, I was able to see people again effective last May.  10 months later, employees are wearing masks while giving care or in common areas of campus.  It's up to residents whether they wear masks.

It's been a long road and it isn't over, but thankfully it is again feeling more like the time before Covid. 

Spring begins at 10:33 CDT this morning, come back for the seasonal blog.