The mayors are in a tie! Right now 70 percent of the residents in Wake Forest and Fuquay-Varina have responded and filled out their short 2020 Census forms.
You do understand the honor of our town is on the line here, along with the side bets. If Fuquay-Varina Mayor John Byrne (a Wake Forest boy who strayed) wins, our Mayor Vivian Jones will have to buy him lunch and wear a F-V cap. Ugh!
So stop procrastinating. Go to your computer now, type in www.2020census.gov and you will find the form. Fill it out – no names, just ages and sexes – and send it off. You will spare your mayor much embarrassment.
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Some of you know that my brother, Gary Williams, two years younger, is in the Island Nursing Home in Deer Isle, Maine, and has been there since late fall of 2017. In late April of that year he suffered a massive stroke and may have lain on the floor of his house for as much as 48 hours before he was able to reach the telephone.
So far away, you say, and that is true. But I am increasingly thankful that he is in Deer Isle, not here in Wake Forest as I had thought possible. I am thankful because of the extraordinary care that facility and its staff are giving all their patients and have kept the pandemic away from its doors.
The administrator at Island Nursing Home closed the doors in early March, shutting off visitors, even members of the hospice team which was helping with Gary because they visited other facilities and could have carried the virus. He requires that staff at Island only work there and at no other nursing homes. All staff members are queried and checked for any signs of illness at a distance from the home before they can enter. If they have anything from a fever to the sniffles they are asked to stay at home until they are better.
He has hired new staff and they are required to wear full PPE for their first two weeks. He and staff are cautious about which new patients to admit, and they are quarantined in a separate room for two weeks.
The Island administrator now has a weekly Zoom meeting for families every Monday afternoon during which he gives an update and relates what he has learned about the pandemic. For instance, this week he said that every week since March 16 he has submitted a request for 5,000 gowns, N95 and regular masks, visors, gloves and booties to the correct federal agency which should be distributing those to nursing homes. I cannot remember the exact number but to date Island has received maybe 38 gowns, 50 gloves and 12 booties.
But Island is fully stocked with all of those because he is ordering directly from China and getting regular deliveries. Monday he said he had two deliveries of regular surgical masks. The ones from China were thicker and sturdier than the ones from somewhere in the U.S. because those ties were already fraying.
But, the administrator said, his experience and the lack of response to his orders makes him worry about other nursing homes in Maine who lack the resources he has to keep the closets stocked.
This morning I was part of a conference call about Gary’s care, a regular occurrence, and heard from the man who heads up the kitchen, Gary’s nursing aide, the director of nursing and the social director. I learned about his weight, how he’s eating, how he this morning had had a shower and now was in his recliner eating yogurt and applesauce, and how he rarely uses the morphine for pain.
Until the pandemic, Gary was getting regular physical and occupational therapy because, with MaineCare, their form of Medicaid, there are no limits to that therapy which can greatly help stroke patients. Here in North Carolina, the General Assembly has made sure stroke patients can only get 10 sessions of therapy.
Yes, Gary is far away, and yes, communication can be difficult since he’s totally deaf in one ear and uses an OTC hearing aid in the other. But he’s safe. He’s well cared for, and we know how much we love each other.
How did this nursing home achieve what others are failing at? The Island Nursing Home was built and staffed after a community-wide effort on Deer Isle raised the money for the building, staff and an endowment which does grow. The facility is owned by that nonprofit community-based organization and all the people who are on the board are either Deer Isle residents or residents of very nearby towns.
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Wear a mask, it’s the polite thing to do to keep your friends and neighbors safe, and keep your distance. Under the mask, wear a smile and greet people with a friendly hello. Wash your hands. Keep those disinfectant wipes handy. And remember we will get through this! Donate food and money to any of the organizations helping people with food and other necessities. That’s what Americans do.
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