CAMPBELL COUNTY RECORDER
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving all of Campbell County
THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2021 | BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK ###
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YOU’LL BE Delighted
‘I WON’T LEAVE YOU’
St. Elizabeth staff , patient share tears; remember a year of COVID-19 Terry DeMio Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Editor’s note: Information included refl ects this article’s original publication date – March 18. Visit Cincinnati.com for possible updates. FORT THOMAS – She recalls extreme pain. Her own scream. An inability to move forward. And later in her 48-day hospital stay, a “scary, dark haze as my lungs fought to fi nd air.” Neaoma Clephane of Northern Kentucky was a COVID-19 patient at St. Elizabeth-Fort Thomas hospital in July and August and part of September 2020. She was a young mom of three children, including an infant, away from her family once her husband carried her out of their Independence home rushed her to the hospital. In a letter to St. Elizabeth Healthcare, she thanks “Andrea” for pulling her through. Andrea Owens is a St. Elizabeth nurse who, with her colleagues, has cared for hundreds of patients with COVID-19 and seen too many die. She, Clephane and others spoke and prayed March 18, one year and 12 hours to the date and time that St. Elizabeth’s fi rst COVID-19 patient entered the Fort Thomas hospital, March 18, 2020. It was time, hospital offi cials decided, to stop for a moment. To remember. To pray. To know that this pandemic journey will, someday, end. “The love that we saw, the bonds that we made with people are unforgettable,” Owens said March 18. Garren Colvin, president and CEO of St Elizabeth Healthcare, told several nurses, a few doctors, a few other staff members who joined the memorial (to keep a safe distance, they kept the attending group small), “You’ve permitted so much healing. Make sure you take the time to heal yourselves.” The Fort Thomas hospital became an all-novel coronavirus site last year, admitting and caring for, to date, 2,936 patients with COVID-19. Colvin had trouble holding back tears as he recalled visiting there one day when some 35 Rosedale Green nursing See ST. E, Page 2A
Andrea Owens, a St. Elizabeth Hospital Registered Nurse, tears up before performing "How Great Thou Art" during the "Covid One Year Later: A Day of Remembrance and Healing" ceremony at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Fort Thomas. PHOTOS BY BERT CESARE / THE ENQUIRER
Neaoma Clephane holds her 18-month-old Isaiah while attending the "Covid One Year Later: A Day of Remembrance and Healing" ceremony at St. Elizabeth Hospital.
Andrea Owens, a St. Elizabeth Hospital Registered Nurse, performs "How Great Thou Art" during the "Covid One Year Later: A Day of Remembrance and Healing" ceremony at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Fort Thomas.
At the Dari-Bar, foot-longs need coleslaw and all the math is done by hand David Lyman Special to Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
The Silver Grove Dari-Bar reopened for the season Saturday, March 13. On a global scale, that’s pretty minor news. But in this tiny (population 1,499) riverfront community in Campbell County, the return of the Dari-Bar is every bit as reassuring as spring’s fi rst daffodils. Over its 70-year history, the Dari-Bar has become a part of the fi ber of this community. Everyone has a story to tell about the place. About falling in love there. Or seeing a friend for the last time. Or meeting someone who would become a best friend. The annual rite of reopening is akin to an act of nature at the Dari-Bar. The snow and ice disappear. The Ohio River recedes into its banks. Then, for the next six months, an unending stream of humanity makes its way to this small ham-
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let in search of soft-serve ice cream and tasty comfort foods. It happened again this year. There were families eager for spring’s fi rst cones, old-timers making a sentimental return to a neighborhood haunt, laborers looking for a quick lunch. They arrived in SUVs and pickups, motorcycles and muscle cars. There were vans decked out with impossible assortments of ladders, PVC pipe and all manner of home improvement materials. There were even a couple of kids who pulled into the drivethrough on their bicycles. Justin and Kayden are both 11 and live nearby. They insist they’ve been regular customers ”forever.” So after the bright yellow “Opening Saturday” banner appeared on the side of the Dari-Bar last week, Kayden was tasked with fi nding out what time the store would open. “Eleven o’clock,” he reported. But by the time the boys got there at 11:20, there See DARI-BAR, Page 10A
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Kayden, 10, picks money out of his Star Wars wallet while his friend, Justin, 11, helps count on their bicyclees on March 13, at the Dari-Bar in Silver Grove. JOE TIMMERMAN/THE ENQUIRER
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