Last week, one of my nurse practitioners shared this story with me that I think illustrates the essence of our mission, especially over the past three months:

“I went with Dr. Kim to visit ‘A’, a home visit patient with a history of progressive dementia. The family reported that she had become listless, lethargic and wondered whether they would have to consider hospice care at last. When we got there, we noticed that the whole family had gathered. None of the children had been to her house for the last 2 1/2 months, because of fears of passing coronavirus to their mother. Although nearly blind and severely demented, ‘A’ picked up tremendously upon hearing voices which we believe triggered familiarity to her. She was lovingly holding her son’s arm during the majority of our visit. We prayed for the family and the patient, and the children of the patient exclaimed afterwards that this was the most lively and active they had seen her for many months – ‘it is like she is coming back from the dead’. They also were appreciative at our example of how to be cautious in engaging with their mother while seeing how not to let coronavirus stop them from seeing her. It confirmed for me why God has me here, and why we are doing what we are doing.”

It is said that we are supposed to be on the “downside” of the curve here in NYC. The weather is getting nicer, people are coming out more, there are fewer and fewer cases as the days go by overall. In fact, things have seemed to look so good that our governor in NY State, Andrew Cuomo, recently announced proudly, “...the good news is... we are finally ahead of this virus and we are in control of our destiny.”