For nursing home resident, a visit still counts, even if it's through the glass
Jean Blice has been confined to her room at Redstone Highlands in Greensburg for more than a week, as the nursing home staff tries to prevent the spread of coronavirus among the elderly residents. Tuesday was a bright spot in a difficult time.
“She has been struggling. She has not had any visitors and all her meals are in her room,” said her son, Joel Blice, who came from Berlin, Md., with his wife, Ellen, to visit his mother Tuesday.
Mrs. Blice, 88, has lived at Redstone Highlands for about a year, since suffering a medical setback in February 2019, her son said. For the visit, she was wearing a blue mask around her mouth as she was wheeled into a first-floor sun room. She could see her son through the door, and could pet his dog, Koa, a German shepherd, during their 15-minute visit.
“It’s been a while since we have been able to come up to see her. We wanted to surprise her,” Blice said.
Making the visit a little extra special is that they brought her some of her favorite foods in a “care package” for her.
Since Redstone restricted visitors on March 13, Blice said they have only been able to talk to her through Skype. Her friends, who are fellow members at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensburg, were able to visit her until Redstone Highlands banned visitors, Blice said.
The restrictions on the movements of the residents has been hard on them, but necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, said Lisa Dormire, vice president of Redstone Highlands.
“So far, what we are doing is working,” Dormire said, noting the deaths in a nursing home near Seattle at the beginning of the pandemic.
The 6½-hour drive from Berlin, Md., located outside Ocean City, limits the number of times Blice can return to his hometown to see his mother. The coronavirus has kept Blice and his wife at home these days because Maryland shut down schools like Pennsylvania. Blice, 60, works as a culinary instructor at Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury, Md., and his wife, Ellen, is a bookkeeper at a local elementary school.
As part of their ritual when they return, Blice said they visited DeLallo Italian Marketplace on Route 30 near Jeannette and plan to get a take-out dinner at Rizzo’s Malabar Inn in Crabtree, before returning home.
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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