Lady-Links: Being a Good Neighbor, COVID Style

The Lady-Links are doing everything possible to be good neighbors by following the protocols established by our retirement community during this COVID pandemic.   As we continue with our activities to bring encouragement to our dear friends in various stages of cognitive decline, we are careful to maintain social distancing and wear masks. Even with restrictions, we have managed to find ways to continue to be neighborly by sending crafts, gifts, cookies, flowers, candy, notes, cards and even a joke book we put together to our dear friends.

Being a Good Neighbor

But isn’t that what a good neighbor does?  When my children were little, we watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, a TV program that taught how to be a good neighbor. Part of the show’s theme song included these lyrics, “I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.”  With Mr. Rogers’ viewpoint in mind, we should all strive to be neighbors who are “wanted.” And when a crisis such as a pandemic occurs, what would you want a good neighbor to do?  Most likely to find ways to be neighborly no matter what and to make the best of the situation.

Making Each Day a Beautiful Day

Another part of Mr. Rogers’ theme song says, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood….So let’s make the most of this beautiful day.”  The Lady-Links have come to realize that COVID doesn’t prevent us from having “beautiful days” and “making the most of them.”  It’s our attitude that makes each day beautiful or not.  When COVID brought about so many restrictions to our activities, we could have stopped our program…but we didn’t. We decided to continue to be “good neighbors” and to “help make each day a beautiful day” especially for our dear friends.

So….we continue to look for new ways to be good neighbors that weren’t incorporated into our program previously since, before COVID,  we were focused mainly on in-person visits.  And, as good neighbors, the Lady-Links are coming up with some great ideas to help our dear friends make each day a “beautiful day” in their neighborhood.  We think Mr. Rogers would agree.