Significant Dates in History

March 13:

I remember the day Princess Diana died. We were newly married. I was upstairs in the bedroom, reading. Allen came running upstairs, burst into the bedroom and blurted out, "Princess Diana is dead!" I couldn't believe it. We spent the next hour watching the news on tv.

I remember many details of my life when the  9/11 attacks happened. Jill was pre-school age and I had organized a group of moms to do our own at home pre-school. That day it was my turn to run pre-school. I heard the news and when Faye arrived with her daughter, we talked about what was happening. Little did we know it was still happening. During the day I kept the tv on to see what else would happen. From our kitchen window, we could see the airplanes lining up at the airport because they were all grounded. In the afternoon, we went to the church building and made sandwiches for all the people stranded at the airport. As the days unfolded, the horror continued.

I For most teachers, in Alberta anyway, March 13 is a day we'll never forget. It is the day that was the last normal day of school before the pandemic. We went home that Friday not realizing that was it. Life wasn't going to be the same for a long time. I would have never thought that two years later, those changes would still be felt.

I looked back in my bullet journal at March 2020. Jill had been home from her mission for a couple of months and was in training at Central Mountain Air for a flight attendant position. Peirce was in grade 12. Allen was still really struggling with his health (we didn't know a heart procedure would be on the horizon) and I was working hard to keep up with school and with seminary.

The next week students did not come to school. The Premier announced on Sunday that school would be cancelled. We had one week to go until Spring Break and so we spent the week at school without students. We spent a lot of time in shock. We still didn't think that things would unfold as they would. When we were asked to clean out our student's desks, I thought they were overreacting. In the end, we ended up spending the rest of the school year online...and what a learning curve that was! 

One great blessing I'll never forget is that on Friday, March 13, for some reason I decided to have my students clean out their desks of anything that didn't need to be in their desks. I was so grateful the next week! Teachers told stories of digging through moldy food, scads of garbage and scrap paper and more. I didn't have any of that because a little voice told me on Friday that I should have my students clean out their desks.

As mandates were rolled out and lock downs were put in place, we learned a new way of life. We learned as teachers to turn on a dime. We learned how to socially distance, how to worship at home and we saved a heck of a lot of money on gas since no one was going anywhere. 

The world will never be the same. Now there is a lot of unrest, even though mandates are being lifted and there is a vaccine and we know how to keep ourselves safe. Somehow, people feel a need to protest. Sure, there are still measures in place for cross-boarder travel - but given the covid numbers in the states and some other countries over the past two years, I'm okay with following the Canadian rules. We have come out of this much better than many other countries have. All of this has been one long Lord of the Flies re-run where we have seen some people be quite self-centered and only care about what they want or what their traditions are versus the instinct to follow a set of rules and values so that we can live together and look after each other. 

Through all of this, we have learned some good lessons on simplifying life and what is really vital. May we never forget! 

Vaccine #1: check!

 It's hard to express the jubilation I felt at getting my first covid vaccine. My appointment was at our convention center downtown. They said not to arrive more than ten minutes prior to your appointment. I dutifully followed those instructions and was quite dismayed to realize how long the line was. It was like the worst kind of Disneyland line up with turns and twists. One minute I'd think I was almost there and realize that the line twisted off in another direction. In the end, it took two hours of standing in line. I felt a little irritated at that but had to reign in my feelings because I was finishing up a book as I stood in line that was about young Ukrainian people  during World War II. Reading about their struggles, sacrifices and how they were abandoned made complaining about standing in a line for a vaccine that would end a world wide pandemic seem silly to complain about. It has been a hard year. We have had to pivot again and again in schools and adjust what we're doing. Children have made many sacrifices and struggled through this year, but most of us weren't starved or abused. The idea that the vaccine could get us out of the measures Alberta Health Services asks us to follow is to me, exhilarating. The sacrifice we've been asked to make hardly compares to what others before us have made. This vaccine is a miracle. I'm grateful.

In The News

 CBC decided to tell a story about us:

Calgary man, sick with COVID-19 after Foothills hospital stay, wasn't notified about outbreak

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Four people have died and a total of 63 patients, visitors and staff have tested positive at Foothills

Jennifer Lee · CBC News · Posted: Oct 01, 2020 5:30 AM MT | Last Updated: October 1

Allen Ackroyd, pictured here with his daughter, was released from a Foothills hospital cardiac ward one week before the first COVID-19 case was detected. He now has COVID-19 and his wife says they should have been notified. (submitted)

A Calgary woman says her husband ended up sick with COVID-19 a week after being released from a Foothills hospital cardiac unit — which is now at the centre of the largest active outbreak in Alberta — and no one from Alberta Health Services alerted them to the danger.

Four people have died and a total of 63 patients, visitors and staff have tested positive as the Foothills Medical Centre battles several outbreaks. Six units now have declared outbreaks, including several cardiac wards, and two others are on outbreak watch. As of Tuesday, 290 health-care workers were in isolation.

Dawn Ackroyd's husband, Allen, was admitted to Foothills hospital cardiac unit 81 on Sept. 9, for an angiogram to treat blockages in his heart, and released on Sept. 11.

He started experiencing mild COVID-19 symptoms one week later (on Sept. 18 ), the same day the first COVID-19 case was identified on the Foothills hospital cardiac care units. That outbreak was declared on Sept. 19.

Allen tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 20.

"I expected somewhere along the way somebody would call us from the hospital or Alberta Health Services to say that there had been an outbreak and to be cautious but nobody has," said Ackroyd.

The situation is particularly concerning, Ackroyd said, because heart patients like her husband are at higher risk for COVID-19 complications.

"In his case it's life and death," she said. "We definitely have that concern and are watching him closely."

Not all patients contacted

What Ackroyd has discovered is that the contact tracing at Foothills hospital doesn't involve connecting with every patient that has been on impacted wards .

In a news conference Monday afternoon, Foothills hospital medical director Dr. Peter Jamieson told reporters the window for contact tracing dates back to Sept. 1, to account for the incubation period of the virus.

However, AHS has confirmed not all patients who were on an outbreak wards during that time period would be contacted.

"At-risk patients who are identified through our outbreak investigation are contacted by AHS' public health team if they are no longer in hospital. Patients who have already tested positive are notified through standard contact tracing," an AHS spokesperson said in a statement emailed to CBC News.

The spokesperson further clarified that the "at-risk" patients are those "who are deemed by infection prevention and control specialists and other health professionals such as medical officers of health as potentially at risk of exposure to a confirmed positive case."

According to Dr. Stephanie Smith, an infectious disease physician and director of Infection Prevention and Control at the University of Alberta Hospital, patients are considered at risk for infection if they had face-to-face contact with a symptomatic case for 15 minutes or more.

"Certainly for the index patient, obviously anyone that was in the same room with them would be considered exposed. But if there was someone on the ward that was in a different room and there was thought to be no direct contact between those patients they wouldn't necessarily be considered to be exposed," she said.

AHS complaint

Ackroyd is so concerned she filed a complaint with AHS and is calling for all patients who are admitted to outbreak wards in the 14 days prior to the identification of cases to be alerted.

"They said they were sorry that nobody had contacted us but they were doing the best they could and they can't be sure that that's where he got it," she said.

"I wasn't really satisfied with that because he hasn't been anywhere but the hospital and home and so my guess is the numbers that they're sharing about cases from that outbreak are not accurate."

The outbreaks at the Foothills hospital continue to grow. Three more cases were identified in patients and staff on Wednesday as public health officials continued to piece together how the virus got into the hospital and put a stop to it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Lee

Reporter

Jennifer Lee is a CBC News reporter based in Calgary. She worked at CBC Toronto, Saskatoon and Regina, before landing in Calgary in 2002. If you have a health or human interest story to share, let her know. Jennifer.Lee@cbc.ca

What a month!

 We have had quite a month in our house. This fall, after being sent for a couple of stress tests, it came to light that Allen had severe blockages in his heart. They gave him strict rules (no walks, no mowing, no going to the gym, nothing to stress him.....they even said don't wash dishes! LOL) as they were really concerned that he could have a heart attack. All this time they've been trying to figure out why post stroke fatigue was such an issue for him. Now we know. He heeded their warnings and went to emergency a couple times. The first time they ran a long list of tests to make sure he hadn't had a heart attack as well as check his heart. The second time he went in they decided to admit him until they could give him an angiogram. He was admitted on Wednesday, had the procedure on Thursday and came home on Friday. This was the first week of school. Teachers always talk about how there's no tired like September tired. Well, I now know there's no tired like September tired when you're dealing with school and covid and then you get to spend evenings at the hospital! ugh

The procedure went very well though and they gave him a stent in a vein that had 90% blockage. It was amazing when I saw him after the procedure. I could tell as soon as he started talking how much better he felt. We were grateful and excited about a new lease on life.

That excitement was short lived. The next Friday , one week later, he started to have a sore throat and runny nose and just generally feel terrible. I know from the workshops I've sat in at school that those are just the things to watch for. Peirce and Allen and I booked a test for Sunday morning (his birthday). We had our results by that night at 2 am. They text them to you. I was negative but Allen and Peirce were positive. Jill also got tested later that week and was negative (she lives in her own place with roommates). She had been over the Monday before for FHE.

It seems like a cruel twist of fate that he would get covid in the hospital. Who would have ever expected that?! It turned out there was an outbreak in his unit. So far his symptoms have been mild and hopefully there won't be long lasting effects. Four people in that unit have died so we are taking it quite seriously. We have been quarantining all this past week. Peirce's main symptoms are gone but still has no sense of taste or smell.

When Allen was first in the hospital my SIL, Becky, rallied a bunch of friends to bring us meals - which was really great. Our RSP subsequently organized meals for us for this past week. It seemed kind of like we should be able to cook for ourselves, but it has been nice to have these expressions of kindness while we're hold up in our house. LOL It also helps to stretch out the groceries! Allen and Peirce are spending their time on the lower two floors of the house and I'm upstairs. I get the kitchen so there's a bit of a Romeo and Juliet thing going on.....they call for me to bring food down for them often. We also have great neighbors who do runs for chips and orange juice and just keep us well stocked in treats.

I've been working from home and setting students up online when they're absent. These days, if a student is absent, it's never just one day since they have to book a test and wait for results - it's usually four days. It's been nice to be able to keep them up on their work. Last week we had some days where there were 8 kids that I was working with. Just before all this happened, my vacuum broke so I've been a little miserable about my carpets that need to be vacuumed - but Auntie Shirley saved the day and lent me her vacuum. It's amazing how a clean house makes the world a better place! Thank you Auntie Shirley!

Allen and Peirce bust out of quarantine on Tuesday as long as they're symptom free, which I'm pretty sure they will be (and as long as not being able to smell or taste doesn't count). The rule for isolating is 10 days from the onset of symptoms for anyone that tests positive. I'm stuck here until Sunday because if you test positive, you have to isolate 14 days from the time you had contact with a positive case. I'm trying to make the best of it and looking at this as a great chance to read more and putter around my house....and sleep. I've been getting LOTS of sleep!

In the end, we're sure glad this happened AFTER Allen had his procedure. If he was living on 10% blood flow and a damaged heart his might be a whole different story.

Bentley gets to hang out with the boys downstairs.

When they did the angiogram, they went in through Allen's wrist. He had quite the bruise!

I think he's trying to turn my phone off here. LOL This was one of the trips to emergency.

May Long Weekend

We have been quarantining for about 8 weeks now. Every time the weekend rolls around, someone says, "What are we going to do this weekend?" It's getting kind of monotonous because we pretty much stick to our normal routine: a movie or two and maybe a game, if we can talk Allen into it (he's not a huge fan of games).

This weekend we decided to head out to Kanaskis! It was a great day.

At a few stops, Frank had to wait inside the car. He sure keeps an eye on everyone! 

Beautiful!

At this stop, Chico didn't really want to walk up the waterfall with everyone. I didn't have the right shoes on either so I stayed in the car with Chico. We happened to be at a University of Calgary station. Imagine having that be your part of your project where you had to stay out in Kanaskis to do your studies. Not a bad life!

We saw gophers, deer, mountain goats and even a black bear!!

On the way home, Peirce did a little geocaching....his furthest geocache discovery yet!

On the way home, even the dogs were tired!

On Monday, Jill and Peirce went out to Kananaskis again and hiked with some friends. 

When they got home, Jill planted some flowers. Can't wait to see them grow! This week we are going to have lots of rain so it shouldn't take too long.

Mourning With Those That Mourn, Comforting Those In Need of Comfort

This week in Come Follow Me we are in Mosiah 18. Tonight we had a hands-on activity. LOL (I think teaching strategy planning is taking over my life) 

Our friends, the Payne's lost their dog, Meira. We took them a little aloe vera plant I had re-potted with a message that it will help them with their healing. I think they were surprised and we had a great visit. We sure love them. 

After that Jill and Peirce went to YSA FHE and Allen and I took another plant over to Becky for her birthday. We had another doorstep visit. We sure love those guys too. 

We are blessed. Actually, we are doubly blessed. Jill and Peirce both had to get tested for covid-19. Jill got sent home from work one day last week because she had a sniffle. They are overly cautious, and rightly so. She got word yesterday that she was negative. Peirce was also feeling sick so he got tested on Sunday and heard today. Phew! Negative!

This was Jill's first order of biz when she was sent home. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Years ago, when I started a streak of walking every day, I did it because it seemed like if I missed a day, suddenly one day missed turned into 7 or 10 or more. It seems like it's the same with blogging. It's been 8 days since I've blogged. I'm going to get back to working on a streak.

Today was Mother's Day and it was a great day. It was an unusual Mother's Day because we had nowhere we could go thanks to the pandemic - but that was okay. I talked to my mom in the morning and had a great visit. The rest of the day was great too. 

I know that a lot of people have trouble with Mother's Day. They don't like the "pedestal-ing". They feel inadequate. I've never really felt upset by people talking about how perfect their mothers are or were. I guess I really don't believe that they were that perfect and maybe it's also because I'm okay with my imperfections. Perhaps it was because I never felt like my mother felt that way. She just seemed to enjoy the day. It wasn't until I became an adult and realized some of the women around me truly hated Mother's Day. Don't get me wrong. I had those awkward years where I felt like a fraud taking the the flower or the chocolate at church when I wasn't a mother. There is some kind of strange idea at church that all women are mothers. They're not and the push we have to seem to try to believe that is weird. All that being said, I love my children's and husband's efforts to make it a lovely day for me. Their efforts are appreciated. 

This morning I woke up to a gift bag of fun beauty products from Allen, which was quickly followed by a "Welcome to Mom Spa" from Jill. She brushed my hair, massaged my scalp, gave me a pedicure and a back massage while the boys made breakfast. What a breakfast it was! Scrambled eggs, granola, yogurt and apple turnovers. Yum! 

Allen made an amazing lunch of French Onion soup and garlic toast. Yum!! I spent the afternoon reading and relaxing. Peirce got me some new oven mitts. He's been disturbed lately by my ability to burn my inner arms as I take things out of the oven. Really, it isn't the oven mitts fault, but I appreciate his concern!

Tonight we had a French style dinner. I'm starting to really enjoy this Sunday tradition. Really, it isn't that different than a regular dinner, we just do it in courses. I like having a salad course first. We all eat many more vegetables as a result. And of course, my favorite is always the cheese course. I love cheese!

We had a "Zoom Devotional" tonight with Elder Evanson where he talked about motherhood. He tied it in with the nature of God and how mothers give us physical birth so that we can one day return to God and God gives us spiritual birth. We can't get back without both.

Lucky!!

Today we took my new car in to get a new windshield. Allen made the appointment last week. When he went in, the guy in front of him was getting stuff for a dealership. He paid for his invoice and then also remembered he wanted to buy some windshield cleaner. There was a conversation and the worker said he didn't want to print another invoice so he thought he'd just give it to him for free. There was some glee and joking around in that moment. Then it was Allen's turn to approach the counter.

I didn't go in, because, you know, social distancing. When Allen got in the car he had tears in his eyes and told me this story: The guy turned a camera on him, slid a paper in front of him and asked him to read it. It was early Saturday morning so it took a couple reads. Finally, Allen looked up and said, "Does this say the windshield is free?"

They were giving everything for free today! They said they were doing it to give back to the community in a hard time. That was quite a gift for us. A $300 gift!

What a feeling!! It made me want to go out and figure out what I could do - which is probably the point.

When we went back to pick up the car, we stopped and bought a case of beer for them. That was funny too. Allen said he went in and said he needed some beer. The guy asked him what kind of beer and he was like, "Uh......" Finally Big Rock came to mind and so the guy was able to give him a little more direction. I think he was surprised to have someone come in with such a simple request and so little knowledge about what he wanted. LOL

When we picked up our car we ran into someone we know from church. We hesitantly asked him if he got a free windshield today (what if we got ours for free and he didn't?!) Turned out he did and we had a fun conversation celebrating our luck.

There are some good people in Calgary!! If you need a windshield, definitely go to Windshield Surgeon!

I'm Okay

This pandemic is interesting. Many people are really struggling with having to be home all the time. I actually don't mind. I like to be home. Maybe I'll tire of it after four months of it - but I kind of doubt it. It's not such a bad life. I just might get caught up on the housework. I have more time to read. Commute times are zero. I'm working hard - but I don't mind working hard. It's not so bad!

Sunday Bliss

What a great Sunday. When you're home all day there is so much more time to read and study and plan and write and think. I've had a fabulous day. I've started to use some of the things I've learned this week for school for seminary.

The weather was beautiful today. Neighbors were out and we chat over the hedge and over the fence. It's lovely. We have little barky dogs on one side of our fence. They're cute....but pretty yappy. Frank had enough of it today. They were out there barking while he wandered around the yard. He sauntered over to the fence and peed on it, right in front of them. LOL

...but they're so irritating

Tonight we watched a fireside (or is it called a devotional now?) with Hank Smith, John Bytheway and Meg Johnson. It was so great. I'm in awe of their ability to speak and motivate. Loved it!

Friyay!

I have a goal to blog daily - and I felt like I was humming along - but man, this has been a rough week. Years ago I worked from home. I was grateful for it because it meant I was home with our kids - sort of. It also meant I worked a LOT of hours. The work is always there when you work from home. This teaching from home is like that. As someone described, we are learning to repair the airplane while we're flying it - only, we're not pilots and we're not mechanics. Bottom line: There has been a STEEP learning curve going on. All in all though, I think it's been a good week and I'll be a little better at it next week.

Today, to celebrate living through the week, we decided to order food in (really, the only option to eating out and avoiding cooking LOL) It was a lot of fun! We got dinner from one of our favorite places: Cactus Club. Yum!! We invited Grandma to join us too. :)

Some things that are bringing us joy:

• dogs
• cheese
• good food 
• friends...especially ones who bring cookies!
• games

After dinner games

 Frank just can't.play.anymore!

Masked, Halleujiah!

We have masks! My friend, Laura, made them for us. Actually, she made them for a ton of people. What a great service! I'm happy to have them. Seems like the right thing to do to wear them while we're out.

We are gearing up for Easter! Frank loves hanging with the new family members:

Jill and I had a wonderful time tonight watching a rebroadcast of the Tabernacle Choir performing Handel's Messiah. I loved it so much, even though it went way past my bedtime. Lately, I seem to need more sleep than usual. Stress sleep? Not sure. I just know by 10 pm, I'm so tired!

Happy Birthday!

Today one of my seminary students had a birthday. Her parents planned a 'drive-by' birthday party. I was super happy they let me know about it. We had a lot of fun as we zipped by with music blaring in Jill's cute little car. Frank loves adventures too!

Staying At Home

It's been three weeks now of us staying home. It's been interesting!

Grocery shopping gives me anxiety. I'm pretty compliant with the stay at home instruction. Logically, I know I'll be fine when I get groceries. I've found people to be polite and the stores are taking measures to keep everyone safe. Still, I feel my sciatic nerve tightening up. It's crazy. Here is the line up to get in to the store when I went this week: