Going back to the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, I can remember days watching my mother sit in silence trying to hide tears from us, that resulted from the devastation of working in the ICU during a pandemic.

This seems a stark contrast to the current existence where she comes home full of life and vibrant stories of providing vaccines to those same healthcare heroes she worked alongside through the devastation. The interesting thing is she now has happy stories of providing hope and restoration to normal life, as she provides vaccines for thousands of Americans.

In the early days of Covid-19 my mother would tell stories of lives lost, both young and old. I can see in her smile that the stories are now full of hope instead of despair. She spends hours a day on her feet, but she is now tasked with the administration of vaccines. Through this experience she has been able to provide a sense of protection for those alongside of whom she works.

Now, as availability has been extended, she has been able to administer the vaccine to the community for which her hospital provides care. Though I’ve been unable to see my grandparents or extended family through the holidays, I am beginning to feel hope that life will begin to return to normal.

It is in the early stages, and will take a long time for enough vaccines to be administered to enough percent of our population for a return to normality but at least the smile in my mother’s eyes when she returns from these days of work provides me some hope that this devastating pandemic might be losing its momentum.