Mary's Corner Medical Center is located at 4254 Jackson Hwy in Chehalis.
After perusing increasingly disheartening news, I read a Facebook post from Dr. Robert McElhaney of Mary’s Corner Medical Clinic on Jackson Highway and burst out laughing.
I’m honored to attend church with this selfless physician and his wife, Becci, and children, A.J. and Lauren, even more so after I read in The Chronicle March 21 that Dr. Mac had launched a “drive-up respiratory clinic” at Mary’s Corner where they can test for COVID-19.
But no sacrifice is without cost.
“Pretty excited last night when Becci McElhaney told me to take off all my clothes when I came in the front door,” Dr. Mac wrote. “Don’t remember similar treatment in the last 35 years so I was game … until she threw me a box of Clorox wipes and a change of clothes from down the hallway!”
I’ve shared his post with friends who need a bit of laughter in an otherwise gloomy pandemic.
Dr. McElhaney said the drive-up clinic is designed to relieve pressure on hospitals by testing people who show milder symptoms of COVID-19. He said the clinic had about 150 test kits available.
“We haven’t gone through 150 yet but have already received more from the lab,” McElhaney said Sunday night. “Could still run short but sounds like everyone is trying to get testing ramped up and even new test options.”
The clinic has enough test kits to last at least two weeks and plenty of supplies as well, McElhaney said, adding that hospitals will have a tougher supply problem.
“Doing my best to stay safe,” he said. “My hands have literally never been so raw!”
I appreciate all that McElhaney and other medical professionals are doing to assist those who are sick during this coronavirus crisis. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other hospital and clinic staff are heroes in my book. They are risking their lives to keep others safe.
Losses are tough, especially saying goodbye to loved ones.
I was heartbroken over the death of Washington State Patrol Trooper Justin Schaffer who was deliberately struck by a truck driven by a fleeing shoplifting suspect while attempting to deploy spike strips on Interstate 5 at Chehalis. The suspect, William David Thompson, faces charges of first-degree aggravated murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, attempting to elude police, driving with a suspended license, and driving with a revoked license and without an ignition interlock. I’d find it tough to serve on that jury. He deserves the harshest of punishments, but nothing can ever undo the heartache his death caused Schaffer’s parents, wife, family, and friends.
Then Saturday night, I learned that the father and grandfather of two Oregon Christian Writers friends lost his life to COVID-19. Sherrie Smith Ashcraft of Newberg and her daughter, Christina Tarabochia, of Tigard, asked people to pray for Sherri’s father, Glenn Smith, who showed symptoms of COVID-19 and tested positive. Eight days later, he died at 91.
Businesses are suffering because of the coronavirus crisis. I received an email from John Fortmeyer, publisher of Christian News Northwest, who noted that for the first time in 26 years, his monthly newspaper would not be printed but viewed only online.
All event-related advertising disappeared with the ban on group gatherings, and he could not distribute the newspaper to its normal 1,900 locations because 99 percent were closed. He did what other small businesses nationally have done — set up a GoFundMe.com site asking for donations at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-christian-news-northwest-newspaper.
Employees are suffering. So are the elderly, locked away to avoid contracting the virus.
It’s a depressing time, but sometimes funny memes shared online and via email can bring a bit of laughter and lightness. A friend sent me the following:
“I don’t think anyone expected that when we changed the clocks earlier this month, we’d go from Standard Time to the Twilight Zone.”
“Critical Advisory: 8 p.m. is now the official time to remove your day pajamas and to put your night pajamas on.”
“We should see a decline in home invasions. Everyone is home with guns and enough bleach and paper towels to clean up the scene.”
And finally, this one: “It was a quiet Monday morning in September 2053, when John awoke with a need to go to the bathroom. To John this wasn’t just any ordinary day! This was the day he would open the last package of toilet paper his parents bought in the year 2020.”
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at chaptersoflife1999@gmail.com.
