Challenges and learnings during COVID-19

It’s encouraging every day to read the COVID stats on Page 2 of the Daily Bee. Some days there are no new cases, while other days list a few new ones. Active cases have been dropping, while reported deaths have stayed at 43 for a good long time. These are good indications.

But we still need to stay vigilant! Masks and social/physical distancing are still appropriate in most indoor settings. Some business owners are more focused on those practices than others are. We, as individuals, need always to be sensitive to how our personal behavior might affect others.

In the midst of being personally careful and socially responsible, we also are constantly aware of how these 14 months of COVID-19 have impacted our normal living routines as persons and as families. For older adults, these months have impacted us in ways particular to our ages and life circumstances.

So, the Geezer Forum will offer older adults, and their adult children, an opportunity to explore how COVID-19 has impacted them. Next Tuesday, May 25, 2:30-4 p.m. in the Community Room of Columbia Bank is when we meet. It’s our first in-person meeting since late March 2020!

“Reflecting on Our COVID-19 Year” is our topic. Our resource persons for this give-and-take conversation will be Eric Ridgway and Caroline Davis from The Human Connection, and Tami Feyen from Bonner Community Hospice. Together, they will invite us to share our experiences, even as they offer insights based on their own professional experiences during the pandemic.

Eric suggests we might think together what our responses might be to questions like these:

1. What have been our biggest challenges from COVID-19?
2. What have we been learning about ourselves and others from COVID-19?
3. How do we move forward as better individuals, and help each other make our community a better place to live?

Along the way in our conversation, I suspect we will touch on experiences of isolation, but also connection; hope, but also despair; joy, but also fear; grief, and how it dances with gratitude. I also expect we will laugh together; some folks may tear up some; but overall, we will simply enjoy being together.

So please consider joining us at The Geezer Forum next Tuesday afternoon. It will be good to see you again, or for the first time!

Paul Graves, M.Div., is lead geezer-in-training for Elder Advocates, a consulting ministry on aging issues. Contact Paul at 208-610-4971 or elderadvocates@nctv.com.