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Susan Karchmer oral history, 2021.
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- speakerOK.
- speakerThis is Ann Silverman, and I'm interviewing Susan Karchmer
- speakeron June 19th, 2021.
- speakerAnd what what I wanted to ask you, Sue, was when did you first hear
- speakerabout COVID, about the pandemic?
- speakerDo you remember?
- speakerProbably in January of 2020.
- speakerDo you remember your reaction..
- speakerWell,first of all it was in China and so you know, you sort of didn't pay that
- speakermuch attention to it. But I know that by March 4th, we took a trip
- speakerfrom Cathedral Village to the casino and we were thinking
- speakermaybe we shouldn't go. So by that time, people were aware and we
- speakerweren't wearing masks or anything. But I think we were starting to sanitize our hands and
- speakerthinking maybe we shouldn't go. But that was the last trip I made to a casino, and
- speakerthat was March 4th.
- speakerWhat would you say were the pandemic's most significant consequences
- speakerfor you?
- speakerThere were consequences right?
- speakerThere were. For me, not so much as for
- speakermany other people, and that's, you know, that I've lived I lived alone for years.
- speakerSo being by myself is no big deal.
- speakerMost of the time I say it appealed to my my inner hermit.
- speakerSo the biggest consequences were not being able to see my friends when I wanted to.
- speakerAnd the biggest was not being able to eat out in a restaurant
- speakerand then not being I want I do stuff like that, not going to casinos,
- speakernot going to malls and just not being able to go to..
- speakerthe Zoo? I hadn't been doing a lot of work there anyway.
- speakerSo and I but I was kind of anxious to get back
- speakerto and of course we're still not volunteering, but I was able to go back and visit,
- speakerwhich was nice. Great.
- speakerHow are your friends doing?
- speakerWell, my friends, pretty much like I am. The ones who have partners
- speakerare finding out that luckily they get along very well.
- speakerAnd the ones who didn't are, you know, very, very, very well.
- speakerI also want to ask you, what role, if any, did did technology play for you?
- speakerI could not have made it through this without it. I mean, I probably could have.
- speakerBut having the computer and having zoom and a lot of
- speakersocial contact I had or as many people had, was using Zoom for meetings.
- speakerI've done Zoom folk dancing.
- speakerI've done I've done webinars on a regular basis
- speakerhaving to do with conservation in nature.
- speakerOh yes, it played a huge part.
- speakerHas has COVID changed any of your plans?
- speakerWell, I had to give up a vacation that I was supposed to take last April, and
- speakerbut other than that, I didn't have too much planned and was just kind of making
- speakermy way through the world here.
- speakerWere there any particular incidents that stood out
- speakerto you related to COVID?
- speakerI think hearing about some of the people who were ill here.
- speakerThat was tough. But also it stood out that our administrators here
- speakerdid such a phenomenal job of keeping the thing at bay and closed.
- speakerI think Charles did an excellent job of keeping things closed, getting things closed
- speakerearly and taking care of the people who were ill.
- speakerMm hmm.
- speakerCharles is the director of Cathedral Village.
- speakerExecutive director?
- speakerYes.
- speakerYeah Executive Director.
- speakerDo you do you have any. Those are my questions.
- speakerBut do you have any memories or comments to add
- speakeror observations about this 15 month experience?
- speakerWell, I'm glad I'm in a CCRC because
- speakerI had no problem getting food. I never had to worry about going out to a store to get
- speakerfood because the food was delivered.
- speakerSo I felt very fortunate that I was not in my own house, which would have been
- speakerreally tough, I think, because I could even wander out here and see people outside.
- speakerAnd yeah, between that and having the technology that
- speakeryou brought that up in, that was probably the key thing.
- speakerGreat. Anything else?
- speakerWell, thank you very, very much.
- speakerI appreciate this.
