During the pandemic I had many discussions with elderly family and friends. I typically call my grandparents once a week or every other week but during the pandemic I maintained calling them once per week on both my mom and my dad side. My grandparents on my mom side lived together however my grandmother on my dad side who is GRAM lives alone in an elderly apartment complex. Sometimes I would FaceTime her and we would do exercises to keep both of us active. She used to go to bone builders which was at the community center for seniors however with everyone being worried and the at risk population no one wanted to go in person and they weren’t holding it in person so this was a way for her to do exercises and get to talk to me sometimes. We didn’t do bone builders exercises every week but it was nice to do it sometimes.

Though my grandmother wouldn’t fully admit it she was incredibly lonely during the pandemic and rarely even saw her neighbors. She was also incredibly stressed however she tried to keep it to herself because she knew we were all stressed at the time. my parents particularly drove groceries to my Gram on a regular basis. This was helpful in the sense that it put her less at risk for getting Covid. However just took away from her autonomy and independence during this time frame. Now when I take care of patients who are out in the elderly population I constantly think of my grandparents. I think about their comorbidities. I think about their feelings and their fears and how much more likely they are to die from Covid than myself, a young 22 year old healthy female.