“It means everything to me,” Grassman said just after his last chance at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville, Indiana. “At my age I didn’t want to get the disease.”
It also means that Grassman can eventually go back to what she loves – playing cards and bingo and being with her friends – once most people have been vaccinated.
“She’s very social,” said her daughter, Mary Carl, of Grassman. “She’s never met a stranger,” she said, so the pandemic has been tough for Grassman, who has her own condo-style home in an independent senior housing facility in Evansville.
Grassman is one of more than 5.6 million Americans fully vaccinated, according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 25 million people have received at least one vaccination shot, with most states willing to vaccinate the elderly and others most vulnerable.
When Grassman arrived at the clinic Monday morning, wearing a T-shirt with a Rosie the Riveter-esque graphic and a face mask that read ‘Fabulous since 1921’, she was greeted with the song ‘Happy Birthday’ over the sound system, and everyone party hats to wear.
Grassman said she was “dumbfounded.”
“When I came in and saw all these people I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know what was going on. I just looked around, looked around,” she said.
Even without the party, Grassman said she was looking forward to getting that final shot.
“I thought it was a nice birthday present,” she said.
Claire Gammon, a registered nurse in Ascension St. Vincent Evansville who gave Grassman her photos, said that after scheduling the second on the day she got her first, the staff realized it would be Grassman’s 100th birthday, “and the room erupted into cheers, and it was just a very exciting day. ”
So Gammon and others at the clinic started plans to make Grassman’s birthday special, with cookies and balloons and birthday hats “just to make a big deal with her second vaccine” on Grassman’s birthday, she said.
“Providing the vaccine to our community of elders and health professionals is definitely the most rewarding thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing as a nurse,” said Gammon, who has worked about 100 hours to vaccinate people in the community.
“I’ve vaccinated people who have lost their husbands, I’ve vaccinated people who have seen a lot of things in their lifetime,” Gammon said. “This pandemic is the worst they have ever seen.”
It won’t return to normal any time soon, Grassman and her daughter said, as they wait until enough people are vaccinated before socializing like before.
“I won’t be able to do much until we can all go out and get out of the house for a change,” Grassman said.
“I’m looking forward to playing cards later when I can get out, because I’m used to playing cards two or three times a week,” she said.
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live out of state want to visit, she said, but “they can’t do it until they get their shot, and they’re waiting for it,” she said.
“I think everyone” should get vaccinated, Grassman said. ‘Don’t think twice or three times. Just think about it and do it. ‘
Grassman doesn’t mince words when it comes to people who are afraid of getting a shot: “I think it’s stupid.”
And as for Grassman, “I’m glad she’s safer,” Carl said, “and she’s glad she’s safer.”