Vicky Bellows, mother of three adolescent boys and a home health aide, has had to make adjustments at home and on-the-job because of Covid-19. As a Home Health Aide, Bellows’ job changed with the looming specter of COVID hanging around her clients. Most of Bellows’ patients are older residents who have been identified as being most at-risk of contracting the deadly virus. With this new threat, the Bellows’ had to change the way she does her work with clients.

“Someone has to bring the supplies out.” Bellows explained. The medical building where she and other home health aids stop to get their supplies for the day have had to change the procedure for how they get the healthcare items to their employees while still maintaining the most sterile and safe environment for the workers and the supplies they use.

And, in addition to wearing a mask, Bellows is now required to wear googles and social distance when she can.

Due to the high-risk of contracting Covid-19 because her job, the Bellows family was exposed to exposed to Covid-19 and had to quarantine for 14 days. As a mother, Bellows had to consider how her work was going to impact her family and her role as a mom, making sure her children are healthy, safe and attending school. The oldest of her children, Sterling, is almost 18 and is independent, so he was able to continue taking his courses online; not much had to change for him. This wasn’t the case with her other two boys, Grant and Brighten. They have had to adjust to school closings and hybrid classes that Bellows feels are not particularly beneficial to the education of her children.

“Most of the Teachers just give out 100’s; more like a participation grade” said Bellows.

Even though each of the boys have at least one teacher who has been successful in connecting with them, the general lack of engagement and interaction between the teachers and the students and their apparent lack of how to teach on-line has become a problem over time.

Since the start of the shut down because of COVID, the family has had to find new ways to spend time with each other. Bellows was challenged with new ways to keep the kids occupied while school was out.

“Our local pool was closed for the summer so the boys were only able to go swimming once or twice this summer”

The family also had season passes to The Great Escape Resort where it was easy for the kids to get busy and have a good time, but that was not an option this summer either.

Despite the challenges that COVID has thrown at her on-the-job as a home health aid, and as a mother of three, Bellows is taking it all in stride.   

Be sure to check out Vicky’s story: