“It means everything to me,” said Grassman shortly after getting the last chance at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville, Indiana. “At my age, I didn’t want to get the disease.”
It also means that, eventually, Grassman will be able to get back to what she loves – playing cards and bingo and being with her friends – once most people are vaccinated.
“She is very sociable,” said her daughter, Mary Carl, of Grassman. “She never met a stranger,” she said, so the pandemic has been difficult for Grassman, who has his own condominium-style home in an independent home for the elderly in Evansville.
Grassman is among the more than 5.6 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 25 million received at least one vaccine injection, with most states aiming to immunize the elderly and other more vulnerable people.
When Grassman arrived at the clinic on Monday morning, wearing a T-shirt with an image of Rosie, the Riveter and a mask that said “Fabulous since 1921”, she was greeted with the song “Congratulations to you” on the sound system, and everyone wearing party hats.
Grassman said she was “amazed”.
“When I came in, seeing all these people, I was impressed that I didn’t know what was going on. I just looked around, I looked around, ”she said.
Even without the party, Grassman said he was looking forward to getting the last chance.
“I thought it was a good birthday present,” she said.
Claire Gammon, a registered nurse at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville who gave her injections to Grassman, said that after scheduling the second on the day she received the first, the team realized it would be Grassman’s 100th birthday, “and the room it exploded in cheers, and it was a really exciting day. “
Then Gammon and others at the clinic started planning to make Grassman’s birthday special, with cookies, balloons and birthday hats “just to make his second vaccine stand out” on Grassman’s birthday, she said.
“Providing the vaccine to our elderly community and to healthcare professionals was absolutely the most rewarding thing I have ever done as a nurse,” said Gammon, who worked about 100 hours vaccinating people in the community.
“I vaccinated people who lost their spouses, I vaccinated people who saw many things over the course of their lives,” said Gammon. “This pandemic is the worst thing they have ever seen.”
Things are not going to return to normal soon, Grassman and his daughter said, because they are waiting until enough people are immunized before starting to socialize as before.
“I won’t be able to do much until we can all leave, leave the house for a change,” said Grassman.
“I’m looking forward to later, when I can go out, I can go to play cards, because I’m used to playing cards two, three times a week,” she said.
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live outside the state want to pay a visit, she said, but “they can’t even get their vaccines, and that’s what they’re waiting for,” she said.
“I think everyone should” be vaccinated, said Grassman. “Don’t think twice or three times. Just think about it and do it.”
Grassman does not measure words when it comes to people who are afraid to shoot: “I think it is stupid.”
As for Grassman, “I am happy that she is safer,” said Carl, “and she is happy that she is safer.”