The New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton faces one of the deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19 in the state. As of December 15, 35 veterans there have died since November 10.
Many more are infected, and staff who have been exposed are quarantined to prevent the virus from spreading further.
For more details on what Veterans House residents and their families are like, NHPR’s Peter Biello spoke with Paula Carnes of Dalton. Her father, Paul Tilden, will turn 97 this month. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Carnes says her father is quite healthy right now.
Note: The following transcript was slightly edited for clarity
How long has it been since you personally saw your father?
I just got to talk to him on video this morning, so I’m like, “Yeah!” The staff there is phenomenal. We do video chat, be it Facebook, Zoom, whatever is available to the family. So I just did it on Facebook. It’s just easier.
So you haven’t seen him in person since the pandemic started?
I got to see him through a glass window and I actually did it for the fiftieth anniversary of his wedding, which was in September.
If he celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary, is his wife still alive?
His second wife, yes.
So not your mother.
Yes.
How’s that for her?
Is very difficult. In fact, she couldn’t catch him the other day. And she said, “You know those people there better than I do. Help me.’ And I say, okay, let me see what Dad is doing with his phone. Sometimes he doesn’t hear her and she’s worried, so she calls me. I have to fix everyone. That’s what you get because you’re the oldest, right?
Oh, so you’re the oldest, so you’re in charge. I am, too, so I know what it’s like.
Yes. [Laughs]
So tell us about how the New Hampshire Veterans House worked, trying to stay connected with your father?
God, they’re absolutely amazing. From the moment this started, which was back in March, March 16, when the governor declared a state of emergency … what they did was, they allowed us, once we passed the initial steps, we allowed video visits or you can do this through the window in one way or another. We had to do what we had to do to protect them as much as possible.
And how was the communication from the Veterans House on November 10, when Covid-19 arrived?
They have a schedule. There are weekly video and phone updates with families, which is very interesting. I can call the nurse station anytime. I can call her social worker anytime, night, day, it doesn’t matter and someone is there to answer the phone and give me any answer I need. For example, the other day I couldn’t reach my father and I was worried about him, so I called. It was evening. Even the nurse called me back. If I’m not there, they’ll call you back in a few minutes. It was amazing.
And what about your father’s physical arrangement there. Is it isolated enough, in your opinion, to prevent exposure to this virus?
I think it is. That is, all employees wear PPE. They really did a lot. I took my father with another phone and I know they had to decontaminate him and I did too, although I didn’t think it was [contaminated]I sprayed everything with a disinfectant when I took my father’s other phone, just to protect myself.
What would you like people to know about how the New Hampshire Veterans House works?
That they were phenomenal keeping everything at bay. I’m not afraid of my father. I know I’m doing my best.