Making it Through the Storm
By the time you read this, the winter storms will be a memory. But now, as I look out the window, the first snowflakes are starting to come down. People are rushing home from work or heading to the grocery store to pick up provisions. Who knows if we will be able to reach the store tomorrow? There is a sense of uncertainty in the air.
Here at Full Life, there is also a sense of unease, as we learned that two wonderful caregivers with our Home Care program passed away in recent days. Steve Adams and Jon Tobin. Both were excellent men who gave so much of themselves. Their deaths were unrelated to each other and unrelated to the weather, but they were special people and they are heavy on our minds as we share the news within the agency and remember the wonderful work that they did for our clients.
Team members from our Solstice Behavioral Health program offered to meet with the Home Care team for grief counseling. It is such a remarkable group of people we have working at Full Life, graciously taking care of each other even as they take care of the individuals in their charge.
We also learned that a longtime volunteer, Mary Andersen, passed away. You may remember Mary from our video that premiered at our benefit luncheon in October. Mary has volunteered since January 2015 at our Snohomish County Adult Day Health Center, where her son Nick is a participant.
As the snow continues to pile up, there are hundreds of our colleagues out in the field, helping our clients in their homes, keeping them safe during the storm. They buy food, prepare meals, help with personal care—all the things that need to be done to help people remain living independently. And there will be days of this ahead.
My photo appears with this article, but our employees are the real-deal heroes of Full Life Care. The ones going out into the storm, doing the hands-on work. Right now employees in our day health centers are helping clients onto vans for their trips back home after a day in which they were able to get nursing care, rehabilitative therapy and a hot meal, as well as a sense of friendship and community. Belonging to a community: Such a powerful, life-affirming force.
In times of uncertainty and loss, it is an uplifting feeling to be surrounded by people you can depend on. People who will do whatever needs to be done. And they will do it with love in their hearts. This sense of connection binds together our family of co-workers and clients, and to our wider group friends and supporters—of which you are a valuable part.
We are here for each other to help make it through life’s storms. There’s nothing else more valuable than that.
