Visiting Mom:  By the grace of God, my mom’s knee surgery got moved to a week ago this past Tuesday.  She was scheduled to have her knee surgery Easter week, but her knee was so bad that the surgeon agreed to move the surgery.  My mom had two options, March 5th or March 10th.  Without hesitation, she took the March 10th date because having surgery on March 5th was going to interfere with her presence at the Gala!  She made it VERY clear there was NO WAY she was going to miss the Gala!  Way to go, Mom; here’s a “high five” … oops, sorry we can’t do that, an “elbow one” to you!
 
The surgery went well.  The surgery was on her left knee, the one that hadn’t seen any surgery up to this point.  After all she went through with her right knee, and given the fact she was still hobbling along, she was ready for this surgery.  Her goal is to be walking again by summer!
 
A day after her surgery, notices start going out that all elective surgeries were being postponed.  The situation with the coronavirus was beginning to ramp up at this point.  So, she lucked out and was able to get the surgery done.  The next challenge was getting her to a rehab center. As we know all too well, a week ago this past Friday, we were in full motion trying to figure out what was happening each day as the coronavirus concern exponentially continued to grow.  We were able to get my mom into Wellbridge of Romeo again, but this time, as with all hospitals, nursing homes, and rehab centers, no visitors were allowed.  My mom finally got transferred last Saturday.  My family dropped her stuff off at the door.  The rehab center staff wheeled her in.  And that was it!  We could then only communicate with her by cellphone.  It was weird knowing we wouldn’t be able to visit her.  But, as I’ve reminded people over and over again the last few days, we should be grateful for all the communication tools at our disposal.  These tools have greatly helped people stay connected.
 
Last Sunday, I needed to deliver a laptop to my mom.  I picked my dad up, and we drove out to Wellbridge.  After dropping the laptop at the front door, we decided we would do a “window visit.”  It took a bit to figure where my mom was located in this large facility, but with her guidance looking for my black SUV, we were able to find her exterior window.  So my dad and I walked on the somewhat soggy grass over to her window and had a “window visit.”  We spent a fair amount of time laughing over the scenario.  The staff instructed us that my mom couldn’t open the window.  So with phones in hand, we were able to visit with her.  We were able to check out her room and make sure everything was in place, like the last two visits there.  The only problem was that I couldn’t get my hands on her chocolate jar, which is an essential object in her hospital and rehab center rooms.  As she was telling us how she felt like a prisoner, my dad agreed and then proceeded to point to and trace the decorative bars of her window.  After chatting a bit (and I think we laughed more than we talked), we took a picture from the window, said our goodbyes, and then drove away.  As we were driving off the property, my mom called my cell phone.  With great laughter, she said, “I just wanted to say that I timed our visit!  You spent as much time with me as we normally spend at a grave.  Just saying!”  So, I guess it was a good quality visit then!  An hour later, after hearing about our successful “window visit,” my sister Cindy and niece McKenzie had their own “window visit” with her.  Unfortunately, the idea of “window visits” were picking up steam across the country.  When my sister Jackie and Dad attempted a “window visit” on Monday, they got chased away as “window visits” were no longer allowed!  Yes, things were changing by the minute!  But they weren’t going to leave until they got a now-famous “window visit” photo.
 
The Quickly Changing Landscape with the Coronavirus: One-day “window visits” were allowed.  The next day they were not!  One day we were going to keep the church open for private prayer.  The next day we were closing the church to all visitors.  One morning, we could have events up to 250 people.  By that afternoon, it was down to no more than 50.  By the next day, it was down to no more than 10 people for a funeral or wedding.  None of us have ever seen anything like this.  We’ve had to be creative, understanding, patience, and charitable!
 
I am SO grateful for people’s understanding.  We had 5 funerals this past week.  The first two were limited to 50 people.  People were kind and understanding.  When the CDC guidelines changed on Monday, I had to make calls to 3 families, each of which was large, that they could have no more than 10 people at the funeral.  They became easy calls because of the graciousness by which these families received the news.
 
What also made it easy was the fact we already had some of the equipment needed to live stream our masses.  This project has been in the works for two years, and I just purchased some of the critical components since the plans and funding were entirely in place.  Thanks to the generosity of a family in our parish, the long-awaited video project will soon grace the walls of the church.  The live streaming part of the plan was able to be implemented quickly.  As a result, we not only live-streamed our weekend and weekday masses this past week, we were able to live stream the funerals too.  We received so many positive comments about the live streaming option.  I’m grateful to Rob Wisniewski from RMW Productions (who helps with all of our video and audio) to Kristine and Richard Hass, Dina Ciaffone, Mary Garofalo, and Father John, who helped pull all of this off this past week.
 
I’m also grateful for your generosity; the generosity of some has moved us to tears.  Being able to accomplish all that we do requires resources, both human and financial.  Thankfully, parishioners have been dropping off their collection envelopes at the Parish Center.  We had one anonymous contribution of $25,000 to help offset the decline in revenue.  We also had an elderly couple carefully help each other walk up to the Parish Center with five worn-torn $20 bills and a simple message: “Monsignor will need this to keep the Church open.”  God bless you!
 
As we weather this current situation, please don’t forget your support of our parish.  This would be an excellent time to consider switching over to electronic giving.  If you are interested in signing up for electronic giving, follow the DONATION button on the homepage of our parish website.  You can, of course, like many have been doing, drop off or mail your envelopes to the Parish Center.
 
May we continue to hold one another in prayer during this most unique Lenten journey.
 
In Christ,
 
gmb
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