How are seniors handling this new reality of the COVID-19 health crisis statewide shelter-in-place order, business closures, and ever-changing regulations? By counting their blessings and making the most of life.
Most seniors continue doing what they do best: Serve others! Many seniors have lived in isolation previously, and for many, isolation has become a way of life. Although favorite activity sites are closed, many are filling their windows with handmade art, hearts, and other images, flooding social media with colors, photos of flowers, and photos of grandkids, and spending time cutting fabric scraps, creating masks, and sending packages to participate in regional efforts to assist health-care providers. One such group, the Quad-Cities – Million Mask Challenge created March 22, sent more than 10,000 homemade masks to more than 20 health-care systems throughout the central states within just two weeks and report they have more than 12,000 in production! Efforts have created new alliances and friendships here too.
Although homemade masks are not as effective as commercial-grade masks, they can expand the life of a commercial mask. Many doctors in Cook County are reporting that they have been issued just one mask a day and are using the colorful fabric masks to cover their N95 masks.
Using a homemade mask stops users from touching their face and helps remind others to maintain social distance. Homemade masks are easy to wash, dry, and reuse, and it’s a good idea to carry one in your pocket, put it on before entering a building, and then to keep it on until you can return home to drop it in the laundry
Many of those still employed, and often working from home, have rediscovered the joys of cooking, working jigsaw puzzles, and playing board games. Some who have never attempted to use computers are learning to use social media sites Facebook, video chats, House Party and other apps. Many are rediscovering faith through online live videos of worship and scripture study.
Some are appreciating the experience of a few extra hours of sleep, while others report increased anxiety. It is a difficult time, but patience is teaching its own lessons. For those who are suffering from illness, a sense of solidarity has descended. Those who are currently ill may be unaware of the flood of good wishes and prayers, but family members are being held up in their grief with a sincere outpouring of good wishes.
Grandparents are finding it hard to watch grandchildren grow, learn to walk, and learn to talk without them, but reading bedtime stories to them, and blowing kisses through live video calls, helps them get through these trying times.
Some seniors have embraced this isolation better than others. Those with a more rural lifestyle may be experiencing more freedom than those who live in urban settings, but everyone has felt the effects. No family or age group has been able to avoid profound lifestyle changes.
One group that is feeling the effects most deeply are the caregivers. Seniors with limited mobility, poor health, or few family members are often isolated to just a few visitors. Suddenly their caregivers are finding themselves stressed.
In other times, caregivers give of their free time, family time, financial security, and their hearts and minds, to support loved one who are older and infirmed. But with the strict COVID-19 regulations in place, many caregivers are unable to visit loved ones. Others have chosen to move in with their parents full-time, forgoing immediate family members, to be sure that Mom and Dad are okay. Others have resorted to sneaking up to the windows of assisted living facilities to peek at their loved ones or to share photos and news through the glass.
Through all these efforts, whether to save a loved one’s life, enhance a family experience, or to help a stranger, most seniors are doing what they have always done, in serving others.
Barb Nadeau is the Community Relations Manager for the Voluntary Action Center of DeKalb County. Barb has worked in television, radio, and print media, as well as in volunteer coordination and networking amongst non-profit social service agencies. She is a freelance writer and television host. Contact Barb at bvnadeau@gmail.com.