Describe the pandemic in one word
Residents describe their pandemic experience in just one word.
Gratitude -Former Oberlin Resident
"Alongside shock, and disorientation, and incomprehension, that is it took a while to comprehend and sort of really take it in and kind of understand what is life like now, but almost from the very beginning and more and more and more as things happened, my key word was gratitude. (long pause) So I was very grateful to be somewhere where I actually didn't have to think "should I," "shouldn't I:" "Should I go to the grocery store?" "Would that be safe?" You know, answer, no!"
Resilience and Adaptations - Judi Bachrach
"I mean, resilience, it was quite impressive. That’s the best part of Kendal."
Bizarre - Former Geriatric Nurse
"I think the word I used the most about the whole thing was bizarre. I just felt like everything–my whole life changed (laughed) between the Covid starting and then having a major heart problem and then having breast cancer this is so bizarre. So bizarre is the word."
Life-changing - Janet Kelsey Werner
"Life-changing? I mean that tells you why. We’ll never go back."
Life interrupted - Mary Simons
Languish - Dan Reiber
"Where you get into the sort of middle condition, oh why should I do it today, we’re just gonna be hanging out, not much happening. I’ll just put it off till tomorrow. I mean it just, I can see how people in prison, you know, relate to what we were doing. So languish would be the word."
Retreat - Elizabeth Hole
"I wasn’t bombarded with a lot of outside expectations. I had the time and the space to really center and reflect. And so if I say it’s a retreat, I meant more in a sense where you go on a pilgrimage…it was more of a pilgrimage. It wasn’t a running away kind of retreat, it was an opportunity to kind of stop and figure out who I was."
Frustrating and Distressing - Larry Mirel
"A lot of people suffered enormously in the shut down and we certainly didn’t. I mean we did pretty well here. But as good off as we were compared to other people, it was still pretty demoralizing."