‘I just want to hug my kids’ Residents of Park Place of Elmhurst senior living relieved to receive COVID-19 vaccine

ELMHURST – Elaine Magnesen gave the best surprise present Friday a grandma could ever offer.

Her health.

Elaine and her husband Vern, Elmhurst residents for over 60 years and residents of Park Place of Elmhurst senior living facility, have not seen their four children and 14 grandchildren indoors since March. All their family gatherings, Thanksgiving, Christmas, were canceled in the last last year as precautions during the coronavirus pandemic.

So when Elaine received the first shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in her left arm Friday at Park Place, it meant the promise of seeing her family again soon.

“My children are going to be thrilled,” Elaine said. “We haven’t told them yet. I didn’t want to jinx it. When we go back to our room Vern will send a text to all of them that grandma and grandpa got their first shot.”

She didn’t hesitate, when asked what she looked forward to most after she gets her second dose of the vaccine. Elaine, eyes welling up in tears, curled her two arms together in a warm hug she can’t wait to give her family.

“I just want to hug my kids,” she said.

She could soon. Elaine and Vern were two of the close to 450 residents and staff to receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday.

It’s been a long wait, but earlier than expected. The Magnesens only found out on Tuesday that independent living residents would be vaccinated on Friday, in addition to healthcare workers.

“We thought it would be months from now,” Vern said. “We were thrilled when we got that call this week.”

Park Place Executive Director Beth Welch said that 98.6% of its residents were vaccinated Friday, with only two people declining the vaccine. Vaccinations began at long-term care facilities the last week of December in Illinois, part of Phase 1a of the state’s multi-phased approach.

As of Friday, 56,624 people statewide at long-term care facilities have been administered doses of the vaccine as part of the federal Pharmacy Partnership Program. Park Place is scheduled to have two more vaccine clinics in the coming weeks.

It felt like Christmas morning Friday with the buzz of activity and smiles everywhere.

Residents lined hallways decorated with balloons with their paperwork, waiting for their shot. Pharmacists from Walgreen’s delivered the doses at three stations behind a white curtain in a large conference room. Residents ringed the perimeter of the room, sitting in chairs waiting to be next.

“It’s been amazing,” Welch said. “All the residents, they got their paperwork in so fast and the families, they were so cooperative and everyone is so excited about this. Everyone here has been so great with the restrictions and masking and social distancing.”

Indeed, Park Place has been fortunate to have only six COVID-19 positive cases among its 300 residents in 2020, with no deaths.

Carole Zimmer, a retired kindergarten teacher who has lived in Elmhurst for over six decades, was filled with emotion at the prospect of not getting the virus, or spreading it.

“It’s a feeling of relief,” Zimmer said, “that we are able to get this done and that we might have freedom.”

Mike Harrington felt the same way. He misses going to his grandkids’ functions, their soccer and basketball games, and just being with family.

Isolation is hard for seniors, who want so much to interact.

“I can sum up how I feel today in three words,” Harrington said. “Excited, that the day is finally here. Grateful, for the staff at Park Place for what they’ve done for the residents to keep them safe; we’re one of the few residences in the state of Illinois that hasn’t had a COVID death, so we are grateful to the staff and fellow residents for following the protocols. And the third word is free. We’re going to be free after our second shot. We’ve been pretty much closed up here. We haven’t gone out for haircuts, or movies or restaurants. Contact with my children has been when they come over here and walk outside, six feet apart.”

Harrington is grateful for technology, and the people of Park Place, for keeping him connected.

Park Place, knowing that its senior residents perhaps are not technologically savvy, offered classes last spring for residents to learn how to use the iPads the facility purchased. Park Place put up two gazebos outside on the patio for outside visits, and put in a heater during the cold months. Zimmer’s husband has difficulty with balance, so he goes to a fitness instructor there three times a week. Residents are brought scones and tea, or ice cream and cookies.

“They have done just about backflips to find ways to do the right thing,” said Carolyn Vallort, a retired science and math teacher and president of the Park Place Resident Council.

While some are hesitant to get the vaccine, Vallort is anything but.

She recalls the polio vaccine being introduced to the public in her childhood. A cousin was in the iron lung for polio. When Vallort was in high school, her physical education teacher gave her the address where she could go to get her shot.

“I can remember my friend and I went there, we got our polio shot, and everybody just breathed a sigh of relief,” Vallort said. “We know about that. This is the same thing.”