SAVED FROM THAT SINKING FEELING
This past year has been a slog for Camille Coelho.
It got worse Thursday while she was walking the shoreline with her son’s lab, Lucy, looking for sea glass.
The 54-year-old nurse in South Shore Hospital’s intensive care unit found herself stuck past her knees in the low-tide mud on Constitution Beach in Eastie.
“It’s a great metaphor for the year,” she told the Herald after firefighters pulled her out. “I can’t believe it. I stepped in mud and pretty soon it was up to my knees and I was stuck.”
A few good Samaritans rushed to help, but it just seemed safer to call in the professionals. Lucy, who didn’t sink in, stayed by her side.
“I called a friend and told them ‘Google woman trapped in mud.’ I saw a traffic helicopter overhead and wondered if people were stuck in traffic jams because of me,” she added with a laugh.
But this Brookline nurse was just doing what she’s done every working day during the pandemic — thinking about others first.
“This past year has been awful. Really hard,” she said. “How would I describe it? It’s been very strange. We’re all struggling. We work so hard to help people only to watch some struggle and die.”
That’s why when anyone complains about wearing a mask she grows impatient. “It dishonors all the hospital workers, grocery store clerks, first responders and respiratory therapists who mask up” because they see just how destructive the coronavirus can be, she said.
“It takes me 3 minutes to get my gear on. It only takes a second to put a mask on,” she added. “Wearing masks should never have become political.”
But to get away from it all, she took a walk down to the water’s edge to collect sea glass for a jewelry business she’s envisioning.
That’s when she landed in what she called her “Gilligan’s Island situation.” She laughed it off after adding: “I guess I just had my 15 minutes of fame.”
I bet some survivors of the ICU think she’s worth more time than that in the limelight.