Our Mansion morale program is working well. This weekend, I delivered a carload of large and small pumpkins this week, along with several carving kits, and the residents are having a blast, I’m told, carving faces on the pumpkins. They’ll show off their work at a Halloween Festival later this week, I wish I could go.

Below, Claudia, one of my meditation class students, helped worked on the new holiday/Halloween/Christmas tree, we have been squirreling in decorations for the holiday season for weeks.

Below, Dianne and Melissa were cutting up pumpkins at the Mansion and also wearing their baseball costumes to bring some change of pace to a community that has been isolated from the world for months.

The aides have been dressing up in various costumes, the residents get a big kick out of it. Changes in routine make a difference.

The staff and administrators at the Mansion are exhausted, they are short-staffed at times, and everyone is working long hours, worn down by the dual mission of lifting morale during the lockdown and keeping the residents safe.

Very few aides have gotten many days off this year.

Their work has truly been heroic, no resident has gotten the virus all year. Fingers crossed.