Fire Through Dry Grass
In July of 2020, I forced my way onto a panel in the NYS legislative hearing on COVID-19 and residential healthcare facilities. Seems the Senators and Assemblymembers of NY (though NOT Governor Cuomo or Health Commissioner Howard Zucker who both refused to attend) were interested in knowing what was happening in nursing homes and other facilities now that people were dying by the thousands. My father, a resident of a nursing home in upstate NY, had gone missing for over 100 days, meaning he was locked in the facility, but we had no way of knowing if he was dead or alive. So yeah, I was absolutely going to speak at that hearing.
The panel was mostly family members, many of whom had to say goodbye to their loved one as they died over the phone. It was brutal. But the most shocking story came from a man who was barely able to Zoom into the session. Dressed in white and sitting in a wheelchair, he introduced himself as a resident of the Coler nursing home facility on Roosevelt Island in NYC. We all sat rapt as he described infected patients being moved into the beds next to himself and his fellow residents. He talked about cries for help to the administration going ignored, by being called liars by the people in charge. He told us they were covering up how many were dying. About a month after this event, I found myself wondering what happened to him and went looking for him. This was the beginning of my friendship with Vince Pierce and the Reality Poets and joining a fight that would prove to be the most meaningful of my life.
Throughout the rest of that year and throughout 2022, I participated on the Coler Task Force, the ad-hoc committee that was made up of Vince and his fellow residents, the CEO of Coler, and various politicians and advocates throughout NYC. Together we listened to the residents tell us of the inhumanity that was happening, only to hear the CEO, Mr. Hughes, say “I’ll get back to you on that”. Because I became fluent in the rules and regulations around COVID and nursing home visitation, my role on the task force was to call ‘bullshit’ on whatever illusion Hughes was peddling, then Google search the bejesus out of what was happening and fill inboxes. For this reason, my Reality Poet friend Pete refers to me as “The Troublemaker”. We plotted vigils and contacted journalists. We fought hard. We still do.
Tomorrow (10/30), PBS will air the documentary “Fire Through Dry Grass” on POV, its award-winning documentary film show. There is even a slice of footage from that initial hearing. I’ve watched the film five times now and re-living the trauma we all endured does not get easier. While I’m not in the film, I could not be prouder of this body of work or the amazing humans who brought it to the world. The film also helps me to reflect upon the people in the moment who helped to raise me up in the fight and bring the best of what we had.
Thank you to NY Assemblymember Patricia Fahy and Elissa Kane for listening to a desperate constituent’s daughter in the midst of the insanity and connecting her to the right people. Thank you to NY Assemblymember John T. Macdonald who helped me to get on that panel in the 11th hour. Thank you to all the members of the Essential Caregiver Movement across the nation who came together and rallied 17 states to participate in the week-long vigil/protest of the year lockdown of COVID (seen represented in the film by the “Isolation Kills, Too” signs). And thank you to every journalist that not only took our calls, emails and cries for help, but then followed up with our stories.
As Movement Gardner for OPEN DOORS, I helped reveal the oppressive landscape that is the long-term care system, struggled to figure out how to connect the collective voices of all residents in long-term care, and helped build the network of support for the #NursingHomeLivesMatter movement. While the work has only just begun, I’m not sure how my light will continue to guide the way. And though there is so much more to be done, I am filled with great hope as the people showing up to help are warriors.
Three years ago no one saw a virus coming that would change not only our lives but the course of generations to come. If I hold onto that, I see only darkness. Then I remember that I never saw a friendship with Reality Poets, a documentary film on PBS, an army of advocacy friends or the drafting of federal legislation either. COVID taught me many awful things about the world. But it also shined a brilliant light into my life. Thank you Reality Poets, OPEN DOORS and the Fire Through Dry Grass team for being that light.