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Emily Starr oral history, 2021.
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- speakerThis is an Ann Silverman, and I'm interviewing Emily
- speakerStarr on June 23, 2021,
- speakerand I'm going to start, Emily, by asking
- speakeryou, when you first heard about the pandemic, if or what?
- speakerWell, what impression it made?
- speakerFirst of all, I'd like to say that my husband and I are in
- speakerBishop White Lodge at Cathedral Village, and the Lodge is what
- speakerother people might call the nursing home.
- speakerSo we were already a little bit out of the news
- speakerarea where we heard things very quickly, I think first memory
- speakerI had is discussing it with one of my daughters who thought
- speakertoo big a fuss was being made about COVID. The next memory I have is when
- speakerBob, who is the super head nurse here came and said we're
- speakergoing into lockdown right now and will be for at least a few weeks.
- speakerSo I have been teasing him ever since.
- speakerI'm not going to depend on his forecast.
- speakerCould you spell his name for me?
- speakerDo you know how to spell it?
- speakerOr could you just say it again? Lop?
- speakerI don't think I
- speakerhad it right.
- speakerThat's all right.
- speakerI call him Big Bob.
- speakerOK, Big Bob's good.
- speakerWell, what were COVID's most significant consequences for you
- speakerand Harold?
- speakerWell, I had the unforunate experience of having a
- speakerreaction. I have a disease called Ataxia, which is somewhat
- speakerlike Parkinson's. And I didn't realize it
- speakerafter the vaccination that
- speakerI couldn't stand either holding something
- speakerand I had a fall and had to be picked up off the floor, et cetera, et cetera.
- speakerAnd I talked to my neurologist who said, yes, that
- speakerthe vaccine will go after your weak parts.
- speakerAnd so for the second round, I don't know if
- speakerI had a reaction because I didn't make a move without having an aide right beside me.
- speakerSo that was one. We have a grandson who's about
- speaker20, who is visiting his girlfriend in Minneapolis,
- speakerthe girlfriend's father had COVID.
- speakerSo the girlfriend and our grandson got COVID.
- speakerThey all recovered, but they all for a time lost their sense of smell
- speakerand taste. And that's the closest we've come personally.
- speakerWow. Did did they regain?
- speakerThey did get it back.
- speakerYes.
- speakerAre there any particular incidents or events that stand out?
- speakerObviously, your reaction to the vaccine.
- speakerYeah.Well,
- speakerI'm not sure what you're asking, but my husband has
- speakervascular dementia and he has a very difficult time understanding
- speakerthat we can't just pick up and go outside and, you
- speakerknow, he'll
- speakersay. This is what he says but it's like this handin.
- speakerSo that is.
- speakerI'm really just talking very personally of how it's affected us, right?
- speakerThis is Wednesday, this past Saturday, our daughter and son in law and
- speakergrandson took us out to a restaurant for Harold's birthday and Father's
- speakerDay. And it was it reminded me of Brigadoon, where once every
- speakerhundred years it comes to life.
- speakerFirst time in over 18 months that we had been out to a restaurant.
- speakerWe've only been out for the doctor's appointments, so.
- speakerIt's hardly a complaint because we were very, very fortunate not to
- speakerbe more affected and I tested twice for COVID.
- speakerI went in what I call the dungeon twice and whatever the suitable
- speakernumber of days is to, they figure I'm OK, but I had no symptoms.
- speakerDon't even know if I had COVID but you can't take a chance.
- speakerAnd I guess I'm now going to get up on my platform and say,
- speakerI think we've been extremely lucky with our executive director, Charles Gurgis,
- speakerwho is played it very conservatively.
- speakerAnd thank goodness you can't argue with that.
- speakerWhen you referred to the dungeon, was that here at Cathedral?
- speakerCathedral blocked off a place at Bishop White Lodge.
- speakerAnd in a way, it was wonderful because you had I had
- speakera nurse assigned to me that time I was the only one in what would be the right
- speakerterm anyway,
- speakerwhere you're kept away from everybody.
- speakerI was the only one there, so I had one full time nurse.
- speakerWho was happy to help because he was bored to tears.
- speakerHow long were you there?
- speakerI think each time it was about a week.
- speakerEach time?
- speakerI think so.
- speakerThere was more than one time?
- speakerYou know, twice. Oh I tested twice.
- speakerOh oh.
- speakerBut no symptoms.
- speakerTwo separate times.
- speakerTwo separate times.
- speakerWell pack up your book.
- speakerBe sure the television is working.
- speakerI'm proud to say I'm now an expert on reality TV
- speakeranyway. Here we are.
- speakerIn terms of people adjusting to daily life.
- speakerYes.
- speakerDo you think this will have a lasting effect on people,
- speakeron you or on other people in society in general?
- speakerWell, I don't have the
- speakereducation or the wit to make an intelligent forecast.
- speakerBut one thing I'm hoping is that we continue to have
- speakerZoom meetings. And I would think the big corporations would love to have Zoom meetings,
- speakerat least occasionally, rather than paying for people to fly all over the country to meet
- speakerone another. It's so convenient.
- speakerAnd for me, since I am now in a wheelchair, I can't
- speakerget to a meeting without and Harold's not allowed to push me, so without
- speakerhiring someone or hoping there's somebody free here who can take me.
- speakerSo there's Zoom meetings. And we have children in Manhattan,
- speakerGladwin, Portland, Maine and London, England.
- speakerAnd we have a zoom meeting every two weeks.
- speakerGreat. And again, we see them far more often than we
- speakerdid before zoom. And every so often the grandchildren pop by and
- speakerwe grill them, see what they're up to.
- speakerSo that's all been good.
- speakerNow, I don't know. I got on to this or if
- speakerthere's an opening for this, but we've had at least three graduations,
- speakerif not four during the lockdown period.
- speakerAnd one school's been very creative
- speakerabout how the kids could graduate and process and so forth.
- speakerBut basically, it's been either no no ceremony or a very dull one
- speakerand and this, again, is not a big deal.
- speakerIt's kind of sad that these kids have been looking forward to this big ceremony.
- speakerThey've worked so hard. And that,
- speakeras we say, is life. Yeah.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerHas has COVID changed any of your plans or
- speakerwell?
- speakerLet's see.
- speakerA change.
- speakerI don't think so, except this means my I
- speakerhave the same time, my own physical problems,
- speakerand that's been running right along with COVID and that's.
- speakerThat's what's changing my life, really, with me and my
- speakerfriend here too.
- speakerI guess I I've kind of gone through these
- speakerquestions, but do you have any comments or observations
- speakeror memories that you'd like to add that I didn't ask about?
- speakerWell.
- speakerOne thing that I I guess I understand that we're having
- speakertrouble here, getting all the staff vaccinated, and I
- speakerunderstand they're now offering incentives to be vaccinated.
- speakerAnd I guess I understand the suspicion
- speakerthe it hasn't been out long enough and I forget what the
- speakerthird reason is. But there are three major reasons.
- speakerAnd I was asked to write something to encourage
- speakerstaff to get vaccinated. Oh, good. Good.
- speakerAnd I don't know if I made this point very well, but it seems
- speakerto me you can get vaccinated and probably
- speakeravoid death by COVID or you could not get vaccinated and
- speakermore surely die from COVID or at least get very sick.
- speakerOh, I know third reason I might have a bad reaction and have to take a day off from
- speakerwork.
- speakerWell, for those of us who aren't anti-vaxers, those
- speakerall sound like silly reasons. Right, right.
- speakerThe only one I can understand is it hasn't been out long enough.
- speakerExcuse me.
- speakerOh, sure. Right.
- speakerWell, thank you very, very much. And me, I guess I haven't got any more questions,
- speakerbut.
- speakerAgain, I don't know if this fits in with what you want to hear that.
- speakerThe staff over here in the nursing home section of Cathedral Village has
- speakerbeen fabulous. During the worst part, they had to wear not only gowns
- speakerand face shields, but plastic
- speakersort of dresses, the bathrobes.
- speakerSo it was very hot and well well, they did mention
- speakerthat they didn't like it, they nevertheless came to work every day, took
- speakergood care of us. Never did we feel the brunt of their frustration.
- speakerNever. And great. I think that's just an extraordinary thing to be
- speakerable to do day after day, because particularly on this floor, which is the
- speakerso-called memory floor where a lot of people here are
- speakersomewhat difficult, they come back and continue to take good
- speakercare with good cheer and great.
- speakerMaybe if that could get into some archive, it would be great.
- speakerYeah.
