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Tragedy is defined by small moments and raw emotion.
After three months of interviewing seniors and their families about the pandemic, several of those stand out. One is the anxiety: Don Brown calling his daughter 30 times each afternoon, wondering why she’s not visiting as his brain struggles to understand the masks and tension in his dementia ward.
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Then there’s longing and tenderness: Laurence Babiuk, pre-pandemic, quietly entering his wife’s long-term care room to simply hold her, cuddling on the bed.
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Married 58 years, Oscar and Mary Fontaine lived together in their family home until the day he died.
Though advanced Parkinson’s made him weak, forcing him to use a feeding tube, Oscar still enjoyed his simple pleasures. Even as a pandemic raged around the world, and thousands died cut off from their families in hospitals and long-term care beds, Oscar was able to visit with family, watch tomatoes ripen in the backyard and rest amidst the familiar sights of home until his eyes grew too tired to open.
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