The Calm Before

Postcard from Plush Mills

Life inside a senior living community

Our president has said that everything the government can do to keep us as safe as possible from the novel coronavirus has been done. No one I know believes him. The opposite is happening here at Plush Mills. Management has closed us down. Every day they tell us what they are doing and what aspects of our life here need to change. I applaud them.

I’m sitting in what might turn out to be one of the centers of the storm caused by the coronavirus — a building with close to 200 older residents, most of us in our 80s at least. 

We are all trying to make good choices with not much data. I decided not to go to church-choir rehearsal (it was subsequently cancelled), since I had already decided not to go to church (it too was cancelled). I cancelled the weekly visit of a group of Plush Mill residents to the Chester Charter Scholars Academy to read to the kids, deciding the risk was too high. This was back before all the schools were closed. 

At Plush Mills, residents are getting their temperatures taken every day. Photo: Ken Wright

And I didn’t go to the most recent Rotary Club meeting, though that might have been okay back then. It would not be okay now – too many people too close together. I cancelled the food I was having brought in for our Sunday night billiards party. I didn’t have to. But I would feel terrible if I allowed the virus into Plush Mills.

A week ago, the residents didn’t seem worried. I asked one person, who I consider rational, about it, and he said, “They always make it sound worse than it is. Remember the hurricanes that were going to wipe out Miami, or the Ebola virus that was going to kill us all?”

He wouldn’t say that now. Now, stores are closing and people are starting to realize that things are bad and getting worse.

We all have decisions to make. One friend recently had a stroke and, though she has recovered well, she is weakened and susceptible to a virus. So her family has moved her out of Plush Mills. 

With my wife Joan here in the assisted living section, I don’t feel like I have the option to leave. She gets more care here than she would get anywhere else, so we are here for the duration.

On Monday, March 16, we had a special meeting of all the residents. In the 12 years I’ve been here, this is the first special meeting we have ever had. Paul, our general manager, did a good job answering questions. He described the dozens of things they were doing to keep us safe, and the next day he followed up with a two-page memo laying out all the things he’d discussed at the meeting. A few questions were hedged, however.

“Will we be told if the virus is in Plush Mills?” I asked. 

Answer: “Well I hope so, but I haven’t heard.” 

I guess that means that he will be guided by whatever policy comes down from the owners. But when people begin to be put in isolation, we will certainly know.

“Are we better off here, or at home with our families?” 

Answer: “That depends on your personal situation and your family’s situation.”

But for the most part, all of our questions were answered fully and completely. He told us that the management and staff are doing everything possible to keep us safe. They are limiting the number of people coming in, and checking the health of those who enter. They are sanitizing door knobs, push bars, and other often-touched items every hour. They are taking every resident’s temperature every day. Also every day, they have a phone meeting with the staff at other senior communities to discuss what more they could be doing. 

The residents were glad to hear all that. The mood by the end of the meeting had improved. It seemed that we were in this together — residents and staff — all of us doing what we could.

With the stock market crashing, and everybody here on a fixed income, I’d be crazy if I said we weren’t worried. But what I felt in that meeting was the good old American fighting spirit that says we can do this. We can beat it if we all pull together.

It felt good to feel that way again.

Ken Wright is a longtime resident of Swarthmore. He has lived in four different houses in the borough, and now he resides just over the town line at Plush Mills.