An NH Elementary School Surprised Local Healthcare Workers With Handmade Cards [PHOTOS]
So, I love this for a few different reasons. But, at the same time, there's a slight part of it that annoys me. I'll get into that in a second.
I was scrolling through Facebook while waiting in the lobby at The Center for Wellbeing (the place you've heard me talking about for the last few weeks to work on dropping my "Quarantine 15"), when I came across a post from one of my former neighbors in Dover.
My friend Jessica, aside from being an incredible neighbor with a massive heart, is also a healthcare worker (like I said, massive heart). She currently works at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, and she picked the right profession because she would literally do anything for anyone. That said, what happened to her and other nurses and medical staff at Portsmouth Regional was SO heartwarming.
Because after Jessica's shift, which, by the way, was in the middle of the night, she came out to a folded piece of paper on her windshield. Now, naturally, first thought is that it's just some flyer advertising something -- but NOPE.
It was a handmade thank you card from a student at Rye Elementary School. And a ridiculously adorable one at that. Look at all of the "thank you's" on the left -- and I'm being serious right now. This anonymous kiddo told a total stranger healthcare worker "thank you" more times on one half of a handmade card than most of us grown adults probably have in the last year that the pandemic has been a thing.
Not only that, but look at the message on the right!
Thank you for saving lives. This year has been hard for America and you guys saved us from dying. Thank you and Happy Valentine's Day. Love, your friends at Rye Elementary School <3
That's not something done for notoriety or to look good, that's PURE appreciation and love. And THAT'S what annoys me -- because us grown adults (and I'm saying us because I'm included in here too, whether I want to be or not) were doing and showing that same pure appreciation and love at the start of all this. Remember the days where at shift change, all of us would stop what we were doing and make noise? Applaud? Scream "thank you?" Hold signs at the parking lots of multiple hospitals while healthcare workers just ending their shifts were leaving, and ones just starting their shifts were arriving?
What happened to that? Why didn't that last? And not only that, WHY was it replaced with annoyance toward those same healthcare workers when COVID testing sites first starting being put in place. And why? Because we had to wait an extra few minutes? WHAT WAS THE RUSH? PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE WORLD WAS 85% SHUT DOWN AT THE TIME ANYWAY!
Look, all I'm saying is we need to pump the brakes and learn a lesson from these kids. Because, yeah, the pandemic has been a thing for about a year/over a year at this point -- but while WE'VE slowed down with our appreciation and love for healthcare workers (not all of us, and not fully, but it's not the same level it was at the start), THEY haven't. They're still going into work, or traveling to different homes, every single day to save lives, all while being exposed and having to worry they could possibly catch something and bring it back to their families.
I hope other schools around New England and even outside of it adopt what the Rye Elementary School kiddos did. I hope adults adopt it, too. Healthcare workers AND other and all frontline workers STILL go home feeling beat up and exhausted, STILL have marks on their faces from N95 masks covered by face shields and other PPE. They're still out there, and they haven't stopped being out there.
Thank you, frontliners and first responders. And thank you, Rye Elementary, for reminding us that sometimes we take our eye off the ball and forget what's still happening in the world because we choose to live in our own bubbles, whether that's staying at home or whether that's trying to focus on going back as close to normal as humanly and safely as possible.
LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions
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