Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

While many folks are ready to get back to the “new normal” after three weeks under a COVID-19 stay-at-home order, others are taking the change of pace in stride.

Emma Alexander, a resident at Noble Manor, has been isolated since for more than a month and has made the adjustment without a complaint. “It is what’s best for all of us.”

And, if she has to remain “at home” in her room, then that’s what she will continue to do.

“I find ways to spend my time,” Alexander said. “I have always enjoyed reading. I come from a family of ‘bookworms.’ John Grisham is one of my favorite writers so I read as many of his books as I can. I like novels and romance, too. We have a small library here at Noble Manor and I go down and get three or four books at a time and I return a book as soon as I read it.”

Alexander also enjoy music, especially classical and some country.

“Sometimes I listen to music while I read, sometimes I just enjoy the music,” she said.

Alexander exercises her body just as she does her mind.

“I walk up and down the hall, five times is a mile and, if the doors of other residents are open I wave to them,” she said. “I walk outside when the weather is nice. And, what I really enjoy is sitting outside and visiting with the other residents. Of course, we have to sit six feet or more apart, but we understand why. We enjoy each other and it’s good to be together that way.”

Alexander’s family includes her brother and his family who live out of town and they talk often.

“He has grandchildren and I like hearing about  them and the things they are doing,” she said. “Of course, they can’t visit but I look forward to visiting on the telephone.”

But there are things that  Alexander said she misses, especially the opportunities for personal contact with family and friends and attending church services at her church, Antioch Church of Christ.

“We usually have around 50 people at the services and our pastor John Dickinson would do three services with about 10 people but some people wouldn’t get to come,” Alexander said. “I watch worship services on television—from Baptist and Methodist churches –  and I enjoy them but I miss the fellowship of my church.”

Just when churches will be open again for services and Alexander will be able to dine with other residents at Nobel Manor is uncertain. She would hope that it will be sooner than later but she is depending on state government to do what is best.

“They are qualified to know and, if we don’t keep a safe distance from each other, even more people could be infected with the virus than before.”

Alexander remembers when polio was such a concern.

“Gary and I had just gotten married were here in Glenwood,” she said. “We stopped to get the polio vaccine that was dropped on a sugar cube. There was a long, long line waiting to get the vaccine. Hopefully, there will be vaccine for the coronavirus. But it could be a year or more away. We just have to be patient.”