Patterson senior center opens for first time since COVID

PATTERSON — For older St. Mary Parish residents who have felt isolated by COVID-19 restrictions, the light is beginning to dawn.
The St. Mary Council on Aging’s Patterson Senior Wellness Center reopened at 10 a.m. Monday for the first time since March 17, when the first wave of major coronavirus measures, including the closure of school campuses and nonessential businesses, went into effect.
Eleven seniors made their way to 909 First St. for the reopening and an 11 a.m. meal.
The midday opening wasn’t quite the same as the pre-COVID center activities. Masks are required — everybody wore them Monday — and the round tables where participants eat and chat are 6 feet apart.
Participants are asked to stay at the tables. Center staff members bring food, coffee and fruit punch.
Site Coordinators Patty Blanco said about 10 people would come to the center when she began the job. When the COVID measures were imposed last year, the daily attendance was up to about 21.
But for the last 16 months, they’ve had to do without the human contact the center provides.
“It’s been a long year and half,” said center attendee Patrick Vidrine. “This basically is the center of our daily living, our socializing and fellowship.”
Some of the people who came to the center before COVID “have become depressed,” Blanco said. “They’re lonely. They’re missing their friends.”
Four center regulars, two in their 90s and two in their 80s, have died since the March 2020 closure, but not from COVID.
Some of the residents “are concerned about their own health,” Blanco said. “It brought me down a little bit, knowing how much they needed the center.”
Weekday meal deliveries to homebound seniors continued during the pandemic. Fifty meals were delivered each day in Patterson and Bayou Vista.
Meal deliveries will continue for those who need them. But for the lucky ones, the center is back.
Waiting for lunch Monday, Vidrine was playing solitaire. Cards are his thing.
Alberta LeBlanc can work on her jigsaw puzzles again. Some of her work hangs on the center walls.
“They call me the puzzle lady,” she said.
Luby Grimball was glad to be out and around again.
“I was tired to staying home,” she said. “But I did take the shots and I did stay home.”
The Council on Aging’s Franklin Center reopened earlier this month. No reopening date for the Morgan City center has been announced.