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Home » Vision » May-June 2020 » In the midst of pandemic, the normal remains

In the midst of pandemic, the normal remains

By Anne Windholz

Last week at work I spent time investigating coronavirus resources and support. I checked chaplaincy organization websites, listened to a conversation about pandemic-complicated grief, identified Schwartz Center aids, and read about Passover in times of pandemic.

For me and most people I know, everything in work life, personal life, and ministry is now “re-visioned” through the ubiquitous image of the coronavirus itself — a pock-marked sphere with mean red “crowns” sticking out all over. Rather like the inhabitants of the Emerald City in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, who had green glasses locked onto their heads, we in healthcare find ourselves wearing spectacles of pandemic that color our sense of reality. People in the Emerald City began to believe that, indeed, the city around them was made of emeralds. That was the wizard’s great trick. Everything green, all the time. We, meanwhile, see corona-red. Our professional discourse is positively dyed by it.

But the “ordinary” stuff is still happening for staff and patients. Vision’s last issue was dedicated to organ donation. What happens in a time of pandemic if a loved one is waiting for a liver, or you are trying to decide whether to donate a kidney? The fear, the hesitation, is simply amplified. The common health issues and accompanying challenges remain. And that is true whether we are talking about an organ donation, a mental health crisis, losing a baby, or dealing with pediatric parents. In a strange new world, this is ground we know. And it’s not all red. We are not just pandemic chaplains.

I point this out in part because I dealt with an ICU death recently — sudden embolism, unexpected, lots of grief — and afterwards the nurse and I were talking it through. As we finished up, I realized — I’d completely forgotten, for an hour and a half, about the coronavirus. That forgetting, that getting lost in the “normal day” of work, even “normal grief” (if there is such a thing) felt good. At lunch, other interdisciplinary staff described similar instances. “I walked out to get a cup of coffee,” said one manager with embarrassment, “and it felt just like any other Wednesday. Then I remembered the virus.”

In a situation where people are dying and many, many others are vulnerable, no one, least of all healthcare workers, can afford to ignore COVID-19. But neither can we let it subsume the usual focus of our work or swallow up our joy in the ordinary. Our world is neither green nor red, but remains beautifully multicolored — even yet.

In the 1970s, my mom had a small poster on her bedroom wall: “Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.” I think that the grace of the normal, too, where we can find it, will be an important part of our work lives in the months to come.

Anne M. Windholz, BCC, is spiritual care leader/staff chaplain at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Vision-logo
Vol. 30, No. 3
May/June 2020

Coronavirus: The spiritual care response


Articles from early in pandemic still feed our minds and spirits – by David A. Lichter, Executive Director

‘Wounded healer’ label fits better than ‘hero’ – by John R. Mastalski

Hospital staff find ways to cope with stress of COVID – by Kathleen Kaskel

Coronavirus also changes prison ministry – by David Lewellen, Vision editor (interview with Fr. George Williams, SJ)

Who else faced this kind of volatility and uncertainty? The apostles. – by Ruth Jandeska

Remote pastoral care: From St. Paul to telechaplaincy – by John Gillman

Moment of grace keeps chaplain going in pandemic – by Jim Willsey

Grief kits help assure families that loved ones in hospital are not alone – by Nick Stewart

Letting go of the daffodils – by Anne Millington

Ministry by phone offers connection to nursing home residents – by Rick Nash

Fear and faith in response to the coronavirus – by Nicholas Perkins

COVID recovery: A member’s story – by Bridget Deegan-Krause

In the midst of pandemic, the normal remains – by Anne Windholz

Contemplating death on Easter Monday in the time of COVID – by John Gillman

Stretching ourselves includes adapting to online funerals – by Maggie Finley

COVID-19 and Catholic social teaching: Choose life – by Dan Lunney

At this time, numbness is nature’s gift to us – by Anne Millington

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