Nana Has Been Released

Imagine you are sick, helpless, and have a very short time left to live.  Would you prefer to spend your remaining days with strangers or with family and friends? What if an unknown, unelected, unaccountable government employee had the power to lock you in your bedroom for eight months, declare your family to be parasites, and only allow people they deem "essential" close to you.  They arrogantly decree their draconian rules are for your safety and any questions to the contrary are threatened with fines.  This is the hell my mother has endured.

She is living in a wonderful assisted living facility with the kindest people in the world.  It is where she needs to be, yet, what the government has forced upon all of them in the name of "safety" is unimaginable. 

Due to the coronavirus, the facility was forced to lockdown at the beginning of March "for only two weeks" - a lie straight from the pit of hell.  The front door was closed and none of the inmates were allowed to leave for any reason other than a doctor's appointment; however, "essential" persons by the hundreds could enter and exit at will.  In their off time, they could shop, travel, walk through crowds, spend evenings with family members (who had also been in public places), and then as soon as they clocked in, they magically became "essential."  I am family and labeled "nonessential" therefore, I am hazardous.  

The staff works intimately close with everyone because it is necessary to assist during baths, hair washing, and dressing; however, during lockdown, for some strange reason, haircuts were not allowed. No one could get a haircut even though it is hygienically necessary.  Ask any nurse, they will tell you it is important, but no one asked them because bureaucrats are in charge.

The activity room was deemed off-limits because it might be unsanitary so the daily activities were held in hard metal folding chairs in the middle of the busy hallway where the nursing, maintenance, delivery, kitchen, office staff plus "essential" visitors had to step through the middle.

Meals were no longer allowed in the dining room and were moved to the bedrooms.  That meant all of the services and the personnel performing the work had to shift.  Inside my Mother's bedroom, no fewer than 12 "essential" personnel from three different shifts entered daily yet I could never once step inside the front door.  They were:

• Morning and evening nurse - administered medications
• Kitchen staff - delivered and removed three meals.
• Medical staff - temperature was taken twice daily.
• Housekeeping - room cleaned once a week and trash removed twice daily.
• Laundry - picked up and dropped off once a week.
• Maintenance - changed light bulbs and made other repairs.
• Activities Director - checked in twice a day in an attempt to encourage socialization and ward off depression.

Every staff member was compassionate because of what had been imposed by tyrants on the helpless people they cared about.  They could see the pain caused by the loneliness but were unable to stop a government with too much power.

In an attempt to alleviate melancholy, the staff moved this couch to the front window. The occupants were able to chat on the phone while their families stood outside the window.  Mother is almost blind and this was not a comfort to her.

Finally, after eight months in jail, Mom was released last weekend...sort of.  I was allowed to visit if I promised to wear a mask, stay at a safe distance, and not touch her.  

I do believe the Chinese Coronoavirus is real and is deadly.  When it first arrived on our shores in February, extreme caution was warranted.  It was an unknown bioweapon and we were unprepared.  Now, our medical doctors have studied it, know how to treat it and the survival rate in the US is 99%.  It has become a pandemic of fear and those in power have capitalized on it to seize more power.  Will we be locked down again every time there is a dangerous flu season?  Never again should we destroy the healthy by quarantining them in hopes of stopping what might or might not happen. This cure is worse than the disease. A freedom relinquished is a freedom lost.  We have lost so many freedoms here in America it is horrifying.  

All I wanted was to be an "essential" person and be allowed to spend a little time with my mother like hundreds of others.  Why was that so bad?

Scooter Visits Nana