As August Arndt celebrated his 90th birthday, he reflected on how COVID-19 has changed the atmosphere in the retirement home where he lives.
A resident at the Marian Chateau in Regina, Arndt was one of many people living in seniors residences in Saskatchewan when they entered into lockdown in mid-March. In those first few weeks, he said uncertainty and frustration reigned supreme.
“Everyone is afraid to talk to anybody or even be with anyone because of this COVID,” Arndt said in a recent interview.
“They’d all like to get out, even though they don’t get out much, but they would like to get out. The fact that they can’t is the frustrating part.”
At first, residents were mostly confined to their suites, with meals brought to their doors by staff. Common areas like the dining room were closed.
“For the first six weeks, we were totally locked down. All we could do was come out and walk around the building and not leave the property,” said Laura Malesh, who is also a Marian Chateau resident. Any time they needed groceries or medication, a staff member would pick it up and deliver it to them, she said.
Doug Trew, who moved into the Marian only a week before the lockdown began, said a lot of residents were missing their families and “getting cabin fever.”
Now restrictions within the building have lightened somewhat and residents have freedom to move within the building and do activities together again. Meals are staggered with half of the residents eating lunch in the dining room while the other half eat supper in the dining room. The alternating meals are delivered to their suites. Family members and friends can visit with residents outside while staying six feet apart.
Arndt was even able to celebrate his birthday on Monday with cake and a party attended by some of the other residents.
But for him, the pandemic has mostly been a waiting game, Arndt said.
He didn’t leave the facility very often to begin with, and now that most activities are up and running again inside the residence, his daily life hasn’t been too badly interrupted. He does, however, look forward to having visitors come to the facility again one day.
“Six months has come and gone and we’re still waiting to end it, but I think we have another six months anyway. I’d be happy to see it end,” he said. “But it’ll pass like all things do.”
Malesh has also been thankful to see restrictions ease a little bit, but the idea that those restrictions could just as easily be reinstated is never far from her mind.
“Since it’s opened up again, it’s been a lot better, a lot freer really. And hopefully it stays that way, but it’s not over, so we never know when we’ll be locked up again,” she said.
“I hope not, but if we have to be, we will be.”
Her love of music and songwriting have been helping to keep her busy in this time, Malesh said. She even wrote a song about the pandemic. Some of the lyrics read, “We must not let up with no one to lean on or hug. Don’t let up — we must depend on each other for the safety of our sisters and brothers, our friends, RNs and others.”
With less to do, Trew said he finally found he had the time to go through the more than 150 letters his father sent to his mother while he was in Europe during the Second World War — a project Trew has had in the back of his mind for years. Family members have been keeping in touch through email and phone calls.
Arndt said he is reading even more now than he did before and going to the activities organized within the Marian. He also talks to his daughter on the phone regularly.
“It’s not hard, it just takes one day at a time,” he said.
