Couples torn apart by pandemic
Management sees benefits in getting sluggers their at-bats
Even before COVID-19, the lines from marriage vows, “for better or worse, in sickness and in health” took on a different meaning when one person in the marriage needed long-term care in a nursing home. This became even truer when we found ourselves in the middle of a pandemic. Suddenly and unexpectedly, policies intended to keep nursing home residents safe led to unimaginable consequences for the couples divided by the doors of a nursing home.
Last year at this time, COVID-19 began to hit nursing homes hard causing numerous infections and many deaths. On March 13, out of an abundance of caution, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopped nursing home residents from receiving outside visitors, in an attempt to prevent further spread of COVID-19 and additional deaths.
This order had the unintended effect of cutting off spouses from each other for many months. Recently, researchers from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and Bowling Green State University in Ohio sat down with the spouses left behind on the outside to learn more about their experiences, and the stories we heard were heartbreaking.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we wanted to recognize those spouses by sharing their stories. One wife, whose husband has lived in a dementia unit since a car accident 15 years ago, said she missed the everyday experiences most. Before COVID she would visit often and they would sit and talk, watch TV and hold hands. Visiting over the last 11 months has been much more limited. After several months of no visits at all, the nursing home where he is finally allowed her to come in for scheduled, time-limited, in-person visits, but it has been different than before. Staff are always present during these short visits to make sure COVID protocols are not broken, “which is very hard,” she said.
Similarly, getting together for meals was a regular aspect of intimacy and daily life for another couple. With the COVID-19 restrictions, the wife went from visiting “every day, twice a day to [her husband] now having nobody and being in a room all by himself.” Window visits and Skype visits were the only options, and for them these were no better than talking on the phone because her husband is legally blind and has a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. His health has declined over their time apart. Now, it is “just horrible,” she says.
Another wife had an established routine of going to see her husband daily at the nursing home to share dinners and to participate in other social activities, all of which she lost when COVID restricted her ability to visit. She and her husband were able to continue to talk by phone daily, but she was frustrated by the lack of access and sad for the people who live there. After many months, the nursing home arranged for residents and loved ones to visit through the window, but even then, those visits were for 15 minutes only. Finally, when her husband was dying, she was allowed to have an in-person, indoor compassionate care visit. That visit, the last time she was ever to see her husband, was carefully monitored to ensure that she followed protocols and did not overstay her time.
A fourth wife said she and her husband have been married for 45 years and she missed everything this year — birthdays, anniversaries, all those events they have shared every year for most of their lives. It was particularly sad for her because with her husband’s advancing dementia it was likely the last of their anniversaries.
While restricting our daily activities and sheltering in place has become a new normal for many of us, the longing for one’s partner on this holiday should never be normal. On this Valentine’s Day, remember all those who are separated from their spouses due to COVID restrictions, and if you are tired of quarantining with your spouse, hug them a little tighter tonight.
As the Orioles’ alternate-site roster developed over the course of the shortened 2020 season, there was a clear sense that their top young pitchers were having their developments prioritized with the opportunities they received.
Still, the team remained concerned that not seeing live pitching in games was going to have a particular impact on their youngest hitters. Only a handful were
involved at the alternate site in Bowie.
Their spring training roster that was announced Friday showed how the focus seems to be shifting to the young bats and supplementing their development in the coming months.
“These are formative years, formative at-bats for these position players,” executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said. “We’re a little bit more worried about that dynamic. We just want to get some of these guys here to see live pitching or track pitches, be around our coaches, and all that stuff.”
In terms of prospects, the Orioles are using some of their spots for players who don’t count as major league depth on their best and most well-regarded young hitters who aren’t on the 40-man roster.
That list, led by Adley Rutschman and featuring Heston Kjerstad, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Terrin Vavra and Adam Hall, means the Orioles will have all their top hitting prospects at camp to help launch them into whatever the minor league season looks like.
They’ll join Ryan Mountcastle, Yusniel Diaz, Ryan McKenna and Jahmai Jones — who are already on the major league roster — to form what makes the richest group of young hitting talent the Orioles have had at a camp in years. Other camp reserves who have benefited from the Orioles’ new development plans, including Mason McCoy,
Brett Cumberland, Maverick Handley and Ryan Ripken, will only supplement that group.
With a 60-man limit at the alternate site last year, the Orioles devoted their spots in Bowie to the likes of Grayson Rodriguez, DL Hall, Michael Baumann, Kyle Bradish and other top pitchers to get some high-level development opportunities.
Baumann and left-handers Alexander Wells and Zac Lowther will be at camp in their first year on the 40-man roster, and Elias noted that Bradish and Kevin Smith could be added at some point. But the younger wave of pitching prospects, led by Rodriguez and Hall, will start their seasons later.
Elias said the pitchers were largely held back because of how late the minor league season will start.
“We don’t know exactly how that’s going to shake out and that minor league season is going to start later than the major league and Triple-A alternate site action, so we’re being a little mindful of the calendar timelines for getting their arms ramped up and how long they’re going to have to pitch over the course of the year, and what we’re trying to do sort of innings and workload wise for those guys,” Elias said.
Elias noted that the expectation was that after spring training ended, there would be another alternate site to bridge things, while spring training for the rest of the minor leaguers at Double-A and below wouldn’t start until April in anticipation of the season beginning in May.
“I think the anticipation right now is that things will start with, or very likely start, with an alternate site setup,” Elias said. “And as soon as Triple-A baseball in the form or fashion that we like to see it is ready to go, it will shift gears to that. We’re preparing for that, especially in conjunction with the fact that the minor league … spring training won’t start until April.
“I think what we’re going to have is we’re going to have like a month of major league baseball and then some Triple-A type players who may be in a bit of an alternate site type of setup, and then the real games against other organizations might be later than that. That’s how we’re [planning], just in case.”
There’s been some speculation that the minor league season could extend through September, so there’s no use ramping up pitchers for nearly three months before a five-month season. Instead, the Orioles are trying to get as many of their young hitters repetitions in their new hitting program as they can.
The new hitting coordinators found that having Rutschman and Henderson at the fall instructional camp with the experience from the summer alternate site allowed them to better lead and advocate for the hitting program. Now, many more can join them.