It was an uplifting visit today at Elizabeth Manor Senior Living in Elizabethtown.
Thanks to the Elizabethtown Fire Department’s hook and ladder truck No. 74, residents in the facility along South Market Street visited with family members for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March.
Family members strapped on harnesses, and one-by-one stepped into the fire truck’s bucket for a lift up to the center’s second floor window. There they were able to see their family members and speak to them by phone.
“Missing my mother too much and I knew there had to be a way, where even at a distance that I could lock eyes with her and she could see me,” said Lucy Molina of Middletown.
It was Molina who spearheaded the idea and reached out to the fire company. Her mother, Guadalupe Perez, has been a resident for two years. She spent eight weeks coordinating the event, which brought out about 25 families for the visits.
“We haven’t seen our mother in a few months. With the condition of our mother, the fear is she will forget who we are after seeing us on a weekly basis,” said Ronald Olweiler, who lives near Bainbridge.
He was joined by his sister, Sandra Shaeffer of Marietta, who noted the pandemic has likely made a lot of nursing home residents feel deserted.
“Words cannot express what this means to everyone who has this opportunity, and it is an opportunity, just to see mom’s face after three months,” she said.
“It’s just going to be overwhelming to see her face,” she added. “We need to see mom again.”
The center’s activities director Loriann Fountain thanked the fire department and stressed how everyone involved appreciated the gesture.
She added residents are still quarantined in their rooms for safety, so the visits were a special treat. They have been communicating with family members through FaceTime and Zoom meetings.
“They’ll be talking about this for some time,” Fountain said.
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June 25, 2020 at 06:56AM
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