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Virus Vs. Visitors

4/7/2010

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April 7, 2010

I haven’t been to the Soldiers Home for a while, but it’s not all my fault. True, we did go on Spring Break for a few days last week, but I had warned everyone that I wouldn’t make it in for those Bingos. (And, I took my mom and son down with me before we left; it’s always fun to see how excited everyone is to see them.)

But I haven’t been down there since we’ve been back—all because of a bug.

We called Mike from our Spring Break hotel, and he said the Roosevelt Barracks were under quarantine because of a virus. (Actually, my call had woken him from a deep sleep, and he had said “a vegetable”—but we eventually figured out what he meant.)

Apparently, no one from Roosevelt is allowed in the nursing center, and no one from the nursing center is allowed into Roosevelt. When we called him on Easter, Mike told us to stay away until the All Clear, and that has yet to come.

Mike called yesterday to let me know the “vegetable” is still a threat. Journalist that I am, I called a nurses’ station to dig a little more deeply. I learned that the inhospitable virus is intestinal, bingo has been cancelled “until further notice”—and no one’s going in or coming out unless they work or live there.


So now I wait. And hope that nasty virus runs its course without serious incident. And miss my friends.  
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    Author
    My name is Sandy Deneau Dunham. I'm a journalist who’s worked at The Phoenix Gazette, The (Tacoma) News Tribune,  The Seattle Times, Town Hall Seattle and Pacific Lutheran University. I'm now back at The Seattle Times, as associate editor of its gorgeously glossy Pacific NW magazine. I've been a volunteer at the Washington Soldiers Home and Colony in Orting, Washington, since January 2009, and I am still a remedial videographer.   

     

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