I'm Back!

Hello, readers! It's very uncharacteristic of me to be absent from the blog at all, let alone a week, but I've been so very sick that I won't apologize for not entertaining you these last several days. The culprit: a whopper of a case of Influenza A. It started seven days ago and I'm still sick and weak, if you can believe it! Pat took me to the urgent care clinic on Sunday and they put me on Tamiflu straight away, and I cannot imagine how bad it would have been if not for modern medicine. At least I didn't end up in the hospital!

Anyway, I've done very little the past week other than sleep, read books and watch TV (but mostly sleep, sleep and more sleep). I left you hanging last weekend with my mention of big trouble at the Union Printers Home. You can read about this beautiful building's history HERE. It started off as a retirement home for typographical printers, and for many years it's been an assisted living facility for the elderly and infirm. Unfortunately, a recent tragedy is forcing the place to close down. One of the patients, an elderly woman (variously reported to be somewhere between 86 and 90 years old) got into an argument with a staff member and went outside to "cool down," so to speak. It was apparently after midnight and about 23° outside. No one thought to check on her, and she subsequently died of exposure. How absolutely horrible! I don't know how this oversight happened, but as I understand it they were understaffed. Of course this tragedy brought a glaring spotlight on the facility and it was deemed inadequate by several important standards, and no doubt the families of its patients immediately began looking for other options for their loved ones, so the upshot is that the nursing home will be closed very soon and the building will sit vacant.

Aside from the obviously tragic circumstance of the woman's accidental death, there is a whole other question of what will happen to this beautiful old structure and its grounds. I sincerely, sincerely, SINCERELY hope that it will not fall into the hands of some awful developer. My guess is that it's on the National Historic Register, which gives me hope, but it is a prime piece of real estate and there are some greedy people out there who probably can't wait to get their hands on it. Perhaps it will reopen as an assisted living facility soon, under new ownership and management. One can hope. 😢

Edit: Pat and I were discussing this situation over dinner, and after some internet sleuthing he found that the Union Printers Home is not on the National Register of Historic Places, which means it's now in a very vulnerable position. This is obviously not a good situation and I will update the blog as things develop.