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Member Poetry: Our Creativity Still Thrives

COVID-19 By Becca Rosselli

I see the headlines on the News I watch my family’s panicked faces An illness coming for us all Nondiscriminatory to our races

I watch the life that I once knew Quickly turn to shambles We dash to the store to buy our eggs As the worlds becoming scrambled

The shopping malls are closed My favorite bookstore too Their jobs are now in holding As they try to make it through

They say they cannot stock the shelves And toiletries an issue In search of comfort in misplaced love It makes me grab my tissues

We watch the numbers on tv Growing and coming fast We hug our families before we work Hoping it won’t be the last

We help you because we love you To keep you safe from harm We were called and so we answered To be your healing charm

The sacrifices that I’ve known I hope you never have to make The next time I hug my daughter Left between history and fate

There are no words that can be placed To properly name my sorrow I only know our unity today Will help us build tomorrow

Becca Rosselli is an LPN at Newfane Rehabilitation and Health Center in Newfane, NY.

“Staten Island is very small. We are really feeling the wrath of this thing. When I was growing up, we had five hospitals. Today we have three and only one level one trauma center on the island. Every day I wake up and get on my hands and knees and pray these numbers don’t keep going up. Everyone knows someone who is affected, infected or dead.” — Kim Fish, PCA, Staten Island University Hospital North

resources, President Trump used public appearances to air personal grievances, cast doubt on the vast need for supplies and resources, and humiliate the journalists tasked with reporting the almostincomprehensible crisis.

As of early April, there were more than 311,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and just shy of 8,500 deaths. National and local experts predict a grave expansion of those numbers and an epidemic that will tear through even the most rural parts of the country like wildfire.

The New York Times reported on April 5 that the number of cases nationally was expected to double every five days.

As the COVID-19 fire burns, hundreds of thousands of caregivers and frontline responders are at work saving lives and fighting the outbreak. As many of us watch the once-unimaginable scenes of sickness and death from afar, our caregivers are in the trenches, helping heal the very sick, and too often, beside COVID victims as they cross over to the other side, stepping in for family loved cruelly robbed by the virus of the opportunity to help ease the way and say last goodbyes.

These pages are just a glimpse of 1199ers during this crisis, doing what they do every day: Undertaking a deadly risk and walking into hospitals, nursing homes, and private homes to do the job of caring for others. In the coming months, we will have a more comprehensive story of our members, their heroism, and their part in healing our country and the world. But for now, these pages are the story of today, and they represent the incredible strength of the 1199 army, and their fight against an invisible enemy. “The government knew about this since 2019. They should have made sure that we had enough PPE and that we were alerted to this situation. They knew a pandemic was coming and now it’s here and we don’t have what we need to handle it.” — Carol Wills, CNA, Terence Cardinal Cooke Care Centre, New York, NY