LACONIA — At a time when nursing home residents nationwide are quarantined in their rooms to keep them safe from the coronavirus, the Mother’s Day car parade at St. Francis Rehabilitation and Nursing Center was intended to be the next best thing to a communal family dinner: a moveable feast of love.
No one predicted it would be a greatest hit.
On Sunday morning a cavalcade nearly 40 family cars – festooned with signs, balloons or ribbons – snaked down Court Street from a meeting place at Stafford Oil, up the hill to the circle, where parka-clad residents lined walkways in wheelchairs six feet apart, holding their own “I love you” signs, waving and smiling behind masks. Almost everyone was teary-eyed, including the drivers and passengers.
“It was the greatest thing ever,” said Pauline Bolduc, 92, who only sporadically sees her son, his wife and her granddaughter at visits outside her room window because they’re usually working. “I can’t help it, I began to cry. I miss my family.”
“Her family stopped and they were shedding tears of joy,” said Suzanne Cronin, a nursing assistant.
“The greatest thing was the birth of my children,” Bolduc said, her voice quaking.
Nearby, Nancy Fernberg, 86, held a hand-lettered sign in her lap, “To my family – Thank you! Love, Nancy.”
“It was a wonderful idea, whoever planned it,” she said, dipping her mask and grinning.
At a time of isolation in nursing homes and retirement communities, while families shelter at home, yesterday’s drive-by parade at St. Francis came as sweet relief after a two-months stretch of having buildings closed to outside visitors, with no chance to say ‘I love you’ in the same space. Online meeting platforms and teleconferencing have been a godsend, a frequently-used substitute for gathering in person at retirement communities and nursing homes. Window visits have enabled nursing home residents sitting inside to see and speak with family members standing outdoors, separated by glass, and conversing by cell phone when residents have trouble hearing. The precautions have probably saved lives.
Seventy-one percent of New Hampshire’s deaths from coronavirus have occurred at nursing homes, which house the state’s most at-risk population. Staff and caregivers at skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers and retirement communities have scrambled to find novel, satisfying ways to preserve social interaction while keeping residents virus-free. It’s been a tall order, and a fragile balance: social interaction is essential to maintaining physical and mental health, especially for older people with limited venues for social life.
So far none of the seven nursing homes run by Catholic Charities New Hampshire have experienced cases of coronavirus, according to Michael McDonough, a spokesman for the charity, which operates three nursing homes in Manchester – the state’s largest city with the highest number of cases – as well as in Dover, Windham and Berlin. Twelve miles west of St. Francis, at Mountain Ridge Center in Franklin, 40 residents and 11 employees tested positive for COVID-19, and seven residents have died.
“We would be one of the last entities to reopen, because of the vulnerability of our residents. We have no thoughts yet about how we would do that safely,” said Brenda Buttrick, administrator at St. Francis.
Late Sunday morning, about 35 of the center’s 66 skilled nursing and independent living residents were seated outside on Mother’s Day, anticipating the cavalcade.
“This is the best we could do in the circumstances,” Buttrick said. “It evoked a lot of emotion. They miss each other. We do a lot with phone calls, electronic visits (through online meeting platforms) and window visits” with relatives standing outside residents’ rooms or otherwise empty common areas where individual residents are seated. “This was something special we could do to let them know how much they are loved.”
At 10 a.m. Sunday, close to 30 cars were lined up and waiting to drive from the parking area surrounding Stafford Oil. Seven contained many of Diane Potter’s ten children, 19 children and 35 great-grandchildren, most of whom live in or near Belmont.
“They’ve been stuck inside. They need to see their family. This will brighten their day,” said Potter’s granddaughter, Jennifer McWhinnie, whose son Michael, 8, held his homemade sign through the sunroof of their SUV while his siblings, Matthew, 13 and Katelyn, 19, a unit aide at St. Francis, rode in back.
“I can’t wait to see my grannie,” said Nikki Sturgeon, who brought her cousin and pet German Shepard, Chumley, to bring well-wishes to Potter.
“We can’t visit my mom. This is the next best thing,”said Denise, Potter’s daughter, leading the lineup of Potter relatives. “She’ll be surprised. She’s probably freezing, though.”
Nearby, in a 1983 blue Cadillac decorated with an American flag and a sign, “Happy Mother’s Day, Pierina. We love you!” mask-clad Guy and Marie Giunta and their daughter Marie, waited in the car that Pierina, 95, and her husband Guy, who emigrated from Italy, used to drive together. Pierina, who lived at Tower Hill in Sanbornton, has been at St Francis for a year and a half, Guy said.
“I’d love to have her home, but there’s so much care she needs now, and St. Francis has been wonderful.” Now “we come visit and look through the window. She doesn’t understand why we can’t come in and hug her. But these are the times and it’s the best we can do,” he said.
Idling at the end of the parade was a green Cooper mini decked out to resemble a dog with a giant black crepe-paper nose on the hood, wide circular eyes on the windshield, two brown ears dangling from side windows and a tail hanging from the trunk. Inside, Kevin Bowen of Meredith was waiting to surprise his wife, Mindy Bowen, a health and safety manager at St. Francis. One of their five dogs, Willow, a poodle, sat in his lap.
Mindy helped organize the event, he said. Their grown children were unable to come, and Bowen said he wanted to say, “We love you,” including from the pets.
With a nurse assistant at her side, Ruth Grove, 96, of Gilford, waited in a wheelchair on the walkway outside St. Francis. After the last decorated car retreated downhill to Court Street, Grove said, “Absolutely beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes,” from behind her paper mask.
Diane Potter, 87, said, “I have 10 children, so I’m not surprised I had all those cars. I thought it was nice.”
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The Sunshine Project is underwritten by grants from the Endowment for Health, New Hampshire’s largest health foundation, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Roberta Baker can be reached by email at Roberta@laconiadailysun.com
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