MOUNT VERNON – Few are more at-risk during the coronavirus outbreak than senior citizens.
Not only are the elderly more susceptible to suffering serious infections – according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, senior citizens have made up 80 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. – they’re also more susceptible to the loneliness that has accompanied the outbreak. Particularly those living in nursing homes, who are no longer allowed to see visitors in person.
“It hasn’t been easy,” said Kim Phillips, activities director at Brookdale Senior Living in Mount Vernon, which houses approximately 80 senior citizens and has not allowed visitors for weeks.
Things have gotten a little less lonely at Brookdale in the last week, however, thanks to the generosity of one local man.
Jim Stoner, a 56-year-old playwright from Fredericktown, has led efforts to write handwritten letters to more than 30 Brookdale residents.
“I’ve always been a fan of handwritten letters,” Stoner said. “And because we’re all so caught up in telephone calls and text messages and so forth, we forget the power of the written note. People love to get them.”
Stoner heads up the Mount Vernon Players, Knox County’s longest-running theatre troupe, alongside his wife, Amy. The troupe had planned on conducting a children’s program at Brookdale in May, but had to postpone the event due to COVID-19 safety concerns.
Still wanting to entertain the nursing home’s residents, Stoner was thinking of alternative options. He was also itching to write again. That led to an idea.
“What if we wrote handwritten letters to your residents instead?” Stoner asked Phillips, a longtime friend.
Phillips answered with an emphatic “yes.”
“Our biggest concern right now is with regards to their morale,” Phillips said of her residents. “We want to make sure that they have little feeling of isolation. It’s always our goal to keep them engaged and feel like they have purpose.”
Stoner didn’t just want to write generic letters, though. He wanted them to be personal.
So he worked with Phillips to better understand her residents. Phillips provided Stoner with specific characteristics for each resident – one or two words about their interests, background or life story. She gave Stoner first names, so the letters could be personal without violating her residents’ privacy.
Then, Stoner commissioned the Mount Vernon Players to write the letters. Family members, including young ones, were allowed to contribute to the project. The group wrote to veterans, entrepreneurs and longtime community members. They wrote to residents who prioritized religion and those who cared more for the arts.
Every letter was different, Stoner said. The younger writers often drew pictures – flowers and sunshine were common – while others wrote letters filled with inspiration. Phillips recalled some letters being up to two pages long.
“The neat thing was I felt everybody sort of had their own direction and impetus to it,” Stoner said.
It took less than a week for Stoner and his crew to write the letters. He dropped the letters off at the nursing home in two installments – the first on March 31, and the second on Sunday. He still recalls the look on Phillips’ face when he showed up that first day, clutching a thick stack of envelopes to his chest.
“When I delivered the first handful of letters, just the look on her face and her gratefulness…” Stoner said. “She looked at me and she said, ‘Jim, one of the women that is gonna get a letter today has been in and out of the hospital over the course of the last five days twice, and we didn’t know if she was going to come back.’
“It just breaks Kim’s heart to think that the last memory that these older residents of her home would have would be of this damn virus, and that they don’t have something pleasant to reflect upon. And that’s what these letters are doing for them.”
Benefits go both ways
Each Brookdale resident had a different reaction to their letter, Phillips said. But all shared one common emotion.
“Every single resident just smiled,” she said.
The letters were largely open-ended, Stoner explained. Most writers talked about who they are and how they’re dealing with self-isolation. Then, they asked the residents about themselves.
“I just told them about myself and where I was from, and invited them to engage me back and tell me a little bit about themselves and their experiences,” Stoner said.
For the writers – especially the younger ones – Stoner said it serves as an opportunity to learn about history. For the residents, it’s an opportunity to connect with the outside world.
This feeling of connection is crucial for elderly nursing home residents, Phillips explained. They need it now more than ever.
“They feel closed off from their family and their friends that typically are able to make contact and connection with them,” she said. “In general, I think anybody who is aging feels very limited and incapable, and I think that it makes our residents feel like they aren’t forgotten.”
The letters encouraged a response as well. Stoner hopes to establish a pen-pal relationship between the residents and their writers, giving both sides something to look forward to during these uncertain times.
“My father always impressed upon me the importance of volunteering and impacting people in a positive way. I’ve always liked to find a creative way to touch people and make them feel better, and that’s why I’m a playwright; that’s why I’m an actor. It’s just very satisfying,” he said.
“Whether or not I ever hear back from any of them, I can take satisfaction in that I made an effort to brighten their day.”
Phillips said Stoner won’t have to worry about receiving a response; several residents have already dropped return notes in the mail.
“Most of them have said, ‘Well, how can I write them back?’ And so that’s been really nice,” Phillips said. “And I said, ‘You know, you may have a pen pal now.’ And they say, ‘Well I would like that.’
“Even days later I had residents come up to me and say, ‘Thank you so much for that letter that I got,’ or ‘Who was that who wrote the letter to me?’ So you know, it stays with them. It really does make an impact.”
‘A great outlet’
Life has changed significantly for Stoner since Ohio issued its stay-at-home order.
A salesperson by day, his work for “essential” clients remains (it has been halted for others). But his time on-stage, performing with the Mount Vernon Players in front of local crowds, has evaporated.
Like many in the entertainment industry, Stoner said he feels somewhat empty at the moment. He’s unable to scratch his creative itch – unable to give back to the community in his usual way, through theatrical performance. He doesn’t believe his line of work is suited for online consumption, unlike other types of art.
“People are having these Zoom concerts and they’re doing these Zoom performances,” he said. “I really struggle to see theatre translating to this kind of a medium. I really do.”
These letters, however, have helped. Stoner said the process of writing them has served as “a great outlet” for the Mount Vernon Players, allowing them to channel their creative energy toward community service in a time of need.
Stoner plans to keep writing to Brookdale residents in the weeks and months ahead. He’s also planning to serenade the seniors, going window-to-window outside the facility while singing and dancing.
It’s personal for Stoner, whose mother is 87 and whose father spent time in a nursing home. He understands the feeling of isolation that can come with age, and how stressful this time must be for local senior citizens.
“I thought, ‘Who is being the most impacted by all this?’ And it’s definitely that population,” Stoner said. “They are obviously physically compromised and they’re the highest death rate in the population, of those that are afflicted. So I’d love to cheer them up somehow.”
The Brookdale residents certainly appreciate it, Phillips said. They’ve been lucky so far – not only to have support from community members like Stoner, but also to have zero confirmed cases in the facility. Phillips said Brookdale implemented drastic precautions days before they were ordered by the state, allowing administrators and employees to get out ahead of the virus.
“I’m very proud of Brookdale, as a company, because we started employing a lot of these actions about two days sooner than what was required… ” Phillips said. “[We] took the initiative to be aggressive in prevention.”
The biggest challenge since the outbreak started, Phillips said, has been keeping her residents’ spirits up. Every little act of kindness – every handwritten letter – has helped.
“Everybody in the community has been so supportive, and that’s what we’re all about here,” Phillips said. She commended Stoner for his ingenuity.
“I’m just so grateful to him. He didn’t have to do that, I didn’t ask him to. And I just love when someone is really thinking like, ‘How can I serve my community better?’ He definitely did.”
How you can help
Phillips said the following items can be donated to Brookdale Senior Living, located at 1615 Yauger Rd. in Mount Vernon, to help lift the spirits of residents and staff during the coronavirus outbreak:
- Care packages (baked goods, goodies, etc.)
- One-on-one activities (puzzles, games, etc.)
- Cards or letters
Visitors can also coordinate window visits with residents, Phillips said. Residents have also been using FaceTime, Skype and Google Duo to stay connected with friends and family.
All donations will go through a disinfection process before being used.
