Editor’s note:This story is part of a weeklong series marking the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic.
HOLYOKE — As the needle neared her arm, A.J. Liuba was ready to capture the moment she got vaccinated, her cellphone in hand on selfie mode.
She looked at the camera and, referencing a line from Princess Bride, she said, “Hello my name is A.J. Liuba. You killed my father, prepare to die.”
Her father, Justin Liuba, died from COVID-19. “I wish Dad could have gotten this,” she said as she waited for the vaccine. “He was about to turn 96 … It happened fast.”
Sitting in a large room in the Holyoke War Memorial Building where veterans were able to get vaccinated on March 9, Liuba said she felt “euphoria that I’ve made it this long.”
About a year into the pandemic, getting vaccinated for COVID-19 is life-changing for many. Recently vaccinated people describe feelings of happiness, relief and hope. Those working and volunteering at the vaccination clinics say it’s meaningful work.
At the veterans clinic in Holyoke, people were vaccinated and then sat in spaced-apart chairs, waiting to make sure they don’t have an allergic reaction.
Samuel Bordeaux woke up at 6 a.m. and rode three buses from his home in Amherst to Holyoke to get a vaccine. “I’m glad to be here,” he said, wearing two masks and sitting in a folding chair after his shot. His father died from COVID at age 94, and Bordeaux couldn’t see him when he was sick.
Now, he’s looking forward to being with his 90-year-old mother, who he hasn’t been able to be with for over a year.
Mike Kendall, a Springfield resident, was sitting in the middle of the room after his vaccination. He said he lost his job at MGM during the pandemic. “I’ve been out of work a year today,” he said.
In the last year, “I had a few bouts with depression,” he said. It was difficult to be socially isolated, and he missed going to church. With immunity just a few weeks away, and with tears welling in his eyes, he said he was looking forward to hugging his four grandkids.
In Northampton and Amherst, Suzanne Picard, a retired nurse volunteering to give vaccines, hears that a lot. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, ‘Now I can see and hug my grandkids,’” she said.
Picard lives in Holyoke and retired about two years ago from working as a nurse in hospice care. “I felt kind of helpless, I guess, when all the frontline people were at work taking care of people with COVID,” she said. “Finally, I felt this was my opportunity to help.”
Her husband also is a retired nurse volunteering to vaccinate people. “I’ll be honest, we don’t work together because we’re both kinda bossy. So far we haven’t worked in the same room at the same time,” she said.
Picard reflected on some of the people she’s vaccinated: a 99-year-old man, a woman with breast cancer, a man who just had open-heart surgery. “These folks had been very fearful about getting COVID. Now they can begin to feel some relief,” she said.
Some people have cried. “In my 42 years of being a nurse, I have never seen folks so happy to see me coming towards them with a needle in my hand,” she said.
Kathy Crafts, a registered nurse who’s giving vaccinations at the Northampton clinic, shared similar thoughts.
“I’ve had people cry, they are so happy,” she said. “They feel very relieved … I hear a lot of, ‘I’m so relieved this is done.’”
She came out of retirement to give COVID-19 vaccines through the Hampshire County Medical Reserve Corps.
“I wanted to be part of the solution,” she said. When asked when she got vaccinated, she remembered the exact date: Jan. 13. “It’s stuck in my mind.”
“This is the most rewarding work I’ve ever done,” said Kate Kelly, a public health nurse for the city who is helping manage the clinic. In the past, she’s worked in primary care and as a nurse, an EMT and a firefighter, she said. But being able to get “literally thousands of people vaccinated and to the other side of the pandemic feels like the most important work I’ve ever been a part of.”
She has been putting in anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week on the clinic, she said. Kelly has severe asthma, and getting vaccinated hasn’t changed a lot for her, at least not yet. “This is the only place I go,” she said outside the vaccination clinic in the parking lot. “My husband is still doing all the shopping.”
Getting vaccinated made her more comfortable coming to the clinic, but until community transmission of COVID is down, she doesn’t see her life changing a lot.
Elizabeth Santos, a Hatfield resident, smiled when asked how she felt after getting her second dose. “Excited,” she said. It was “a long time coming.” Her husband has been getting treatment for stage 4 cancer. “We were extra careful,” she said. “Part of last year I wasn’t even grocery shopping.”
She’ll be waiting until cases decrease before hopping on a plane to see family, but when it’s warm she’s been able to sit outside and socialize with neighbors.
“I was just a little worried it would get canceled,” said Gail Weidmann, an Ashfield resident, as she left the Northampton clinic. Some appointments were canceled in early March after the Health Department didn’t receive its requested vaccine from the state. But, Weidmann’s appointment was on and she was able to get in and out in 20 minutes, she said.
The past year, she said, “it’s not been easy — just because of the isolation.” Weidmann loves to cook, and hasn’t been able to cook dinner for people — she’s only been able to serve popcorn around the fire for friends.
“I haven’t had anyone in my house for a year,” she said. But soon, she’ll be able to see some vaccinated friends.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.