Protected through pandemic under Mary’s mantle

There is something else you do not see but can only envision: a beautiful protective blue mantle covering the building. This is my home and the home of some 250 other senior citizens. We have survived a full year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We all have endured a year that challenged our faith. At times the challenges seemed insurmountable: our health was threatened and, for some, compromised, even unto death; some faced unemployment or business loss; social distancing, required for our safety and that of our loved ones, led to isolation; and access to the sacraments was suspended.

For seniors living in congregate communities, the challenges were compounded by the deaths of neighbors and friends; the inability to leave the campus for months; prohibition of guest visitation, even visitation between levels of care, leaving spouses unable to visit for months; and restricted access to spiritual resources to assist in coping with these trials.

My senior community did everything right and did keep us alive. Their appropriate and effective protocols have been recognized in the media for preventing COVID-19 transmission. Staff testing for COVID-19 was initiated early in the pandemic, and all are tested weekly; detailed contact tracing and immediate quarantining protocols are implemented. At the same time, despite weeks of total quarantine to individual apartments—most residents live alone—every effort was made to provide for our psycho-social needs, from small-group programming, Zoom meetings with family, outdoor dining when feasible (when indoor dining was prohibited for months), and even telehealth to meet mental health needs. Anyone who wanted the COVID-19 vaccine has received it; in fact, 98 percent of residents had two doses of the vaccine before March. But the most important provision has been access to spiritual resources to strengthen our ability to cope.

The senior community is not faith based. However, it has an ecumenical and interfaith chapel, a residents-led chapel committee, and voluntary weekly religious services when public health officials deemed it safe to resume them. Catholic Mass and Protestant services are provided weekly. A rabbi has provided services also. Residents coordinate these activities and assist the clergy before, during, and after the services under a strict infection transmission prevention protocol. Monthly rotating resident chapel assignments, including lectoring, are the responsibility of a resident chapel coordinator, and the senior community management designates an employee staff member to assist with these activities. Staff can be seen stopping at the chapel door as they begin their clinical shifts for a moment of prayer. Volunteer-led Bible study is offered biweekly.

From the time small-group, resident-led activities were reallowed, a group of residents has met daily in the chapel to pray the rosary. This has gone on for months. The opening prayers elevate in prayerful petition the community management, by name, and all staff members and residents. The protection of Mary, Mother of our Savior, is invoked daily as the rosary mysteries are proclaimed. Concluding prayers are raised in gratitude because we have survived this great period of trial.

Undoubtedly, our community has remained safe, with unprecedented few deaths from COVID-19, due to the phenomenal efforts of the administration. But they had help. And if you look closely with a spiritual eye, you can imagine Mary’s blue protective mantle over our entire community, which remains even as the flag is retired each day.

MARIE T. HILLIARD, MS, MA, JCL, PHD, RN, is a senior fellow for The National Catholic Bioethics Center. She is also a Dame of Malta, a U.S. Army colonel (Ret.), and a resident of Knollwood Military Life Plan Community in Washington, D.C.