Mar 9, 2021 15 min read

I agree, it’s ben a toatlly  crazy year, because of hte isotlation you cannot visit friends or family, can’t go to reatuaruants, i treally turned things upside down. 

COVID – I’m a pretty active person, 79 years old, considering my age, i’m not lying around the house watching TV, my wife and i just got back from a cruise we went to the Caribbiean, came back in Feb., the group that replaced us on the ship we were on came down with COVID, the people who got on the ship came down with coronaivurs. 

Again, we do a lot of traveling, especially places like europe, we just coudlnt’ go this year, we just couldn’t go anywhere we still can’t go anywehre. UK is restrictive, france, italy, germany, we cant’ go 

Got both vaccines in the VA, wife got one in Uniontown, secheduled for second one. 

I want to get back as soon as possible, i’m not sch3ulding anything just because of the uncertainty. i have to get a nknee repleaemcnt, got one during COVID in Sept., have to get the other one done. With the knee pain and stuff it was terrible, the thing is, surgery for knee replacements wasn’t pleasant, I don’t want to be. 

My attitutde is they’re not going to heal on their own. I had choice to go to UPMC thorugh VA, I go to WVU sports medicine facility. 

One thing that does trickle down.

I was a medical social worker in VA healthcare system, worked in butler aspinwall, oakland, last 7 years i was there i was spinal cord injury coordinator at VA system, i established a spinal cord injury tetreamtent program at Oakkland, I’m invovled iwht keystone chapter of paralizyed veterrans, there’s an award program in my name. I go there, i do the presentations, do the spiel. What was nice about that, this was after i retired, they establisehd this, Frank Steck Award 

I’m gonnat be biased, the VA health care is proably the best in the world, there’s some people who can’t be satisfied, to enlighten you, people don’t realize this, you hear a lot of bad things, negative things about Walter reed, and military hospitals, VA has its own health care system, in Pittsburhg I can speak about health care system, but the VA health care system in pgh is run by University of Pittsburgh medical center, physicians i pitt medical shcol are the ones in the Va, 

Thomas Starzl, pitt gets credit for bringing him to pgh, the vA paid 3/4 of his salary. 

VAThe directors for the VA healthcare in u.s. received the award. I attend programs at the Cemetery of the Alleghenies, i see them there, of course i do the politicking there, if you need something, give me a call, couple eyars ago, the assistnat deputy of eastern u.s. was there, i’m glad you asked me that, friend in my 80s had surgery and he needed visiting nurse services, i ordered it, they were playig around with this guy, I called and said what I wanted. 

I really did not facilitate anything. 1994 I retired. Order stair glides for their homes, wheelchairs, i still know people at the VA. 

trnasportaiton has historically been a problem to get to the VA, in fayette county the veterans affiars office is excellent and sends trnaposrtiaont, and FACt Trnaposrtiation goes to pittsbugh and morgantown. 

Tere’s always problems, Fayette County Verterans affiars has been great and disabled veterans of america have probideved transportiation. When i was working for the VA, it was more of a problem than today.

Unfortunatley, kids just we just cut down everything with kids, used to have them for dinner once a week, even for holidays they didnt’ come into the house to visit, we went out into the car, we did, i felt the risk was just too great to not practice that isolation. Zoom, forget about that, i dont’ even Two kids, and stepson, it’s been restririge. 

I’ll continue to wear the mask, i realoly feel reassured now that i got both vaccines i veel conmprobratel interacting with other people, thank go for the avialliblity of hte vaccines, i like outdoor activitieis, i like fishing. I like to stream fish for trout. ther’s so many places to stream fish in pa, it does not get better,

Very active with AmVets in Hopwood, excellent service club, member of American legion in Peryopolis, member of Paralizyed veterans of america, when i was coordinator for spinal cord, tremendously rewarding, a lot of people initially there with paralizyed vets are still there, i used to attend their meetings., another group i’m involved with is Veterans back to Normandy, it’s in france, one thing I do Mr. DiLeo, See what we do. Basically, if an indificual is eligible to receive french legion of honor award, andASsociation of French Legion of Honor. Excellent organization to recognize these guys. We attend D Day ceremonies in Normandy . did not attend the one Trump went to, coudln’t go on stge with him. One of the gusy I refer, We were at a ceremony after that, we were being interveiwd, He’s despicable and a disgrace. By getting that award, french legion of honor award, on D Day they want to bring as many veterans asp ossible, our org pays for their expenses, flight, hotel,  the guys can go every year, they all need a care giver, 

The 76th anniversary was cancenled.  up in the air whether it will be canceled. The attitude is , the normandy group, We will not forget what these guys did for us. 

They took those guys up on stage, this was an auditorium with 2,600 kids in attednacne, there was a roar that went up, like a steelers. French people treat them right. 

Caratin, review stand, of course  Heard a roar half a mile away, you could hear it approaching us, it was Tom Rice, 97, he was a hero in liberating the town of Carrington. He’s the indiviudal who made a jump at age 97. He stayed after the . B AmVets has loan closet they have everything over there. if they don’t have something they’ll buy it. like a humidifier.

US Air Force, took the brighter and best looking.

If they were neglected it’s because they didn’t seek out the service. Homeless veterans the VA has had a progrma for 30 years to provide housing, they’d go out searching for these guys. veterans would turn them down.

Let me mention for another resource, its Stan Angel – commander of AmVets Post 103 in Hopwood 724-439-6151.

Rob Doria – excellent, commander of American Legion in Uniotown, is now Fayette County. 

Seniors – 

Greene County Seniors (Waynesburg Senior Center) –

Connellsville Senior Center – secretary Arlene Leonard, 80, of Dunbar, by Pechins, well, used to seeing the senrioes in here eveyr day eating their lunch, plabying bingo sespecilay, now we have no one, I’m the secreatry or whatever they need me to do.

I got my first shot, second shot tomorrow, i’m thirlled to death.  Right now it’s not going to change too much, becuase ueyou still gotta wear the mask, doesn’t bother me at all, i’m used to it, i don’t have to wear

Live in my home, theres a lot of people I went and got my own groceris my self, folowed the rulse, wore mask and stayed 6 bfeet behind someone, i didn’t have much trouble at all, takled wit h family members on teh phone . I would go out once in a while before this, they do have the where you drive through , DQ, 

Maybe going to church in the begginnig, member of church, closed, tehy started seating 6 feet apart, Definitely, people’s trying to be back to normal now. 

, 21 years employee, you get old. activities, gambling, Not since the COVID, go to go gamblihng if i have a little exra money, you forget everyting, mostly the 7s, slot game, don’t undersand teh other games, money goes, 

I have no children, got a bunch of great nieces and great great that i miss, when we have little family get-togethers when ne know everybody’s ok. 

I thought it was terrible, it’s a shame so many people lost their lives when they didn’t have to, if our ex-president would have taken things in his hands 

I’ve seen a lot and whent through a lot and this younger generation donesnt’ understand, they’re selfish this younger generation, tey think of themselves and noone else, they don’t understand sacrrifice, give me give me Thank god its coming to an edn and it will come to an end and people shouldn’t b disgusted and want to go without taking precautions, at at ime like his stis’ about the end and stick to it so it doesn’t go highter, if they just have a little mroe patietnsce. 

World War II, when our country’s in need, people ogt to sitck together and not be divived. I had a long time to do that hon.

MASONTOWN SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER – Kristen 

UNIONTOWN 

Brownsville – 7 p.m., 

As it relaetes to American Legion, a lot of our members are seniors, with COVID, a lot of people don’t want to go out and sociallyze, unerstandably, that’s hurt the revenue of all the legion clubs, i’m inovled with our acitvitieis with the legion, we finisehd up essay progrma, its’ easy to do in this environment, high school and jr high school students cn partiicipate, last year we had 40 entries, this year we had 17, so i think shcool played inot it, other progrmas, Boys State and Girls State, a heavy duty civics lesson touted as a leaderhsip program, if student interested in going to a service academy, if they attend Boys state or Girls State, they get bmypmed up on the list, week-long progra hled at Cambridg university, this year, though , that program won’t happen because of COVID, so they decided to do this virtually. don’t know how you’re going to get 150 kids togheter on the computer screen, it’s going to be a challenge. we ahve State Polic e Youth Week, this would be a weeklong amp for someone intersted in joining the police force or military, they get training with dogs an firearms, phsyical activity, that has also been scrateched this year, that’s really a bummer, we usually send 4 or 5 students to camp at no cost to student, since the revenue is down from generating our fundraisers which we can’t do in this enviroument, we dont have the resources.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts 

Honor GUard is still going on, all these gusy who do this, you’ll see them in different univriforms, VFW, Amerian legion has this these are all volunteer guys, in wintertime when its’ 10 degrees and teh pastor gets longiwnded, those guys are waiting. Can’t say enough about them. A lot of times it’s the only time the family sees us, maybe they never participated in post programs. We explain to them it’s final sendoff to one of our brothers and sisters. And American Legion baseball, right now that’s kind of iffy, don’t know if the scheeudles are made up, that was canceled last year, 16-18 age group. 

Veterasn groups AMERICAN LEGION. 

Oratoical contest an oration , 8-10 minute oration on any aspect of the u.s. constitution, last year going through program, young lady from Frazier High School won the state oratorical competition, $7,500 in prize money, and additional cash, she started college American Legion program. Last year at state level we went that far, at ational level she could have cmpeted but national was shut down because of of COVID. If you

Definitely, the Children and youth programs were canceled, 

We ce;ebrate Americanism Day with parade in uniontown, this is 88th year coming up. We usually have program and paarade, dinner and speech. POST 51. Americn legion. Usually one of the biggest parades. I got pamphelt talking about over the years how that pardae has gone. 

Reader American Legion Post 295 Brownsville 

I’d say, i have in my position i see patients in the hospital and i see them, after trauma, and also people with dementia and memory problems outside hosptial., one thing i’ve seen is that eveyrone shas said there ave been changes to theri social accitiieiws, who they see on a regular basses, as geriatitiicna we alsway ask how do they kepe themselves busy, many dont’ have jobs and reguals reshcuelds youger people td., they used to have lunches with girfirlesd,s go to seinor center an play bing bgore the pandemi,c there’s that clarifying word, before the pandemic, it’s ben a whole year of complete change in their social ainteriicatino and it’s stil going on. 

theres differnt types of ioslaitoin, first level is having a compantinon and partner in the home, even if they ond’t have that we hoep they hve social circles outside the home, it’s been hard for peopel to cope withouth those, relying on frmaileis and people they have carefigives, they’ve relied on people to get gorciers, they don’t want to feel like burdens they said, it’s been tough, i’dve seen peopel being isoldetae and epreseed and doen’t hwant to ask for hep wieht hey tdon’t suat .

Gettin places, doctors appoitnmetns, we encourage peopel be social, gkeep up with regualar docotors appoitnmetns, mixed messaging really hard 

I think we’were seeing paeitnes who i see coming to hosptial are much sicker thatn onese we’d see who would come for more mionr things, they try hard to put off coming in, puttling off visits to pcps beacuse  they’re fearful.

I do excluesilvy etelemedicine, we rely on family members to help them with those tehconooogcial things, again a lot of thise peopel don’t want to bother their loved ones, Don

Asmost everyobyd i’be veen able to see hasnt’ been ablet ot stay hpsyicially helathy especialy living here in winter, i see people who fall, people have been edecidiondiitned and not in as good physical shape as they were a year ago. usually when people come in for falls we reomcmend they go to rehadb center, it’s been harder than ever this pas tyer, they have a hard time they dont’ want to be seapraretd from their families, can’t visit people in rehab. 

I dont know any of my patients who contineue to go to grocery store, they rely on delivery or for peopel to drop off, that for many was teh only time. 

Its a really fine balance, we want to gkeep epeoel safe from the virust but as gieratiitatoin it’s hard to see the mental and psycicdeliclens and problems that come from them not seeing loved ones, we’ve told them to keep set secheule and keep doing acitivities that set schedule is lost when they’re on their own. recommneding people to stay at home, mental. 

Deprerssion and dementia go hand in hand, they’re almost sotr of two sides of the same coin, dementia i’d say more than half who are diagnisoed with dementai are diangoed with depression, people with dpereession are a thigher risk of dementia, we’re seeing people who are isolated, whatever it ws they were able tot do tdo find joy and ukeep up their mental and phaysical activiity, we’re seeing a decline in their cogivinite function. 

Dementioal and epression has gotte mwrose fundicitonin because of change in csocial circlies. It’s been really hard, when i see my paeitnes hwo i see just for dmenetial, i’ve seen a sharp delcine, i get calls, my loved one has declined siginfiiciantly in the past two -months. Senior cneters closing, places of faith where people feel that sense of fululimment in their life it’s gone, their brain without those things it’s hard for their brain to keep up.

I’d say a couple things, if people have family members who are in facilites where theyr unable to visit, there are a couple things people could still do to help. just because they’re not able to phscially be there , tehre are things they can do to not make thyem feel alone, cards, artwork, simulated presence therapy, send voice recordings, simulated phone call about pleasant experiences they’ve shared, often times people with dementnia won’t remember hearing it so they can play it over and over, things from home, little pieces of fabric, waht its like to be with peopel they’re missig, can send love ffrom far awary. 

I’ really hopeful, i feel like wer’e really lcose, the niexct fuew months are goign to be really crucial, as lont g as we stay on track, with faccines, many of our olde,r i’m hopeful things will look very different a few months from now, i’m telling mpateitnts this sint’ the time to let our guard down, time to make our buccket lissts of what we want to do, i feel like it’s on the horizons. 

It’s always a lot of times seeing their friends, having lunch with their friend ,s hugging their grandkisds, loved ones who live far awary, it’s coming.

this sins’t just for older adults, knowing for caregivers of older adults, i’m hopeful that things will get easier, people who have loved ones, it’s also been arder for the people taking care of them, thse older adults are lukcy to having them, hopefully knowing were’ close to some return to normal. 

We dont’ alwas think about they younger popeles 

Kristen Albert Gallatin Human Services – Lisa: Grab and Go from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., stand out in the back, if they don’t want to be interviewed, 22 South Main St., Masontown. Clover leaf from Waynesburg, first light, right, turn onto alleyway, Masontown Senior Center.