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“It means everything to me,” Grassman said just after getting the final shot at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville in Indiana. “At my age, I didn’t want to catch the disease.”
It also means that eventually Grassman will be able to return to what she loves – playing cards, bingo, and being with her friends – once most people are vaccinated.
“She’s very social,” her daughter, Mary Carl, said of Grassman. “She’s never met a stranger,” she said, so the pandemic has been tough on Grassman, who owns his own condo-like home in a senior independent living center in Evansville.
Grassman is among more than 5.6 million Americans who have been fully immunized, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 25 million people have received at least one shot of the vaccine, with most states seeking to vaccinate the elderly and others who are most vulnerable.
When Grassman arrived at the clinic Monday morning, sporting a T-shirt with an image of Rosie the Riveter and a mask that read “Fabulous Since 1921”, she was greeted with the song “Happy Birthday” on the audio system. , and everyone wear party hats.
Grassman said she was “flabbergasted”.
“When I arrived, seeing all these people, I was overwhelmed that I didn’t know what was going on. I just looked around, I looked around, ”she says.
Even without the party, Grassman said she can’t wait to get that final shot.
“I thought it was a good birthday present,” she says.
Claire Gammon, a registered nurse at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville who gave Grassman her injections, said that after scheduling the second the day she had the first, staff members realized it would be Grassman’s 100th birthday, “and the hall broke well done, and it was just a really exciting day.”
So Gammon and others at the clinic began planning to make Grassman’s birthday special, with cookies, balloons, and birthday hats “to make a big deal out of his second shot” on the day of the hospital. Grassman’s birthday, she said.
“Providing the vaccine to our elderly community and health care workers has been absolutely the most rewarding thing I have ever had to do as a nurse,” said Gammon, who worked around 100 hours immunizing them. people in the community.
“I have vaccinated people who have lost their spouses, I have vaccinated people who, in their lifetime, have seen a lot,” Gammon said. “This pandemic is the worst thing they have ever seen.”
Things won’t be back to normal anytime soon, Grassman and her daughter said, as they wait until enough people are vaccinated before they start socializing like they did before.
“There’s not much I can do until we can all get out, get out of the house for a change,” Grassman said.
“I can’t wait to be able to go out later, I can play cards, because I am used to playing cards two, three times a week,” she said.
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live out of state want to come visit, she said, but “they can’t until they get their vaccine, and that’s what they expect, ”she said.
“I think everyone should” get the vaccine, Grassman said. “Don’t think twice or thrice. Just think about it and do it.”
Grassman doesn’t mince words when it comes to people scared of getting shot: “I think that’s stupid.”
As for Grassman, “I’m glad she’s safer,” Carl said, “and she’s glad she’s safer.”
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