The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
CT senator dealing with loss after taking office
Hochadel lost both father and sister a month after taking oath
State Sen. Jan Hochadel spent her first months as a legislator in mourning. Hochadel took the oath of office on Jan. 4 and soon after lost two family members.
“My father died, and then just a few days later, my sister died. They were both in hospice. So February was quite the month for me,” she said. “As a new senator, it was quite a lot. It was an emotional roller coaster, to be sure.”
Neither death was unexpected. Her father, Richard Bibby, had been a smoker for 70 years and died on Feb. 7 from complications related to COPD. “He went into the hospital for the first time on Thanksgiving Day,” Hochadel said.
Soon after, he started having a series of ministrokes. Doctors thought a procedure to clear the arteries might help, but Hochadel said his blood vessels were too blocked.
“My mother was his caregiver 24/7 since
Thanksgiving,” she said. “On Feb. 6, he had a massive stroke. My mom was able to get him to the hospital. And by 3 o’clock in the afternoon, he was put in hospice.”
His death, while tragic and difficult, was something of a “blessing,” Hochadel said. Her father had wanted to die with dignity.
“As hard as it was, it was also a relief at some point because he was going to have to start having limbs removed, his foot that was getting no circulation,” she said. “On one hand, it’s a blessing because he didn’t have to go through any of that.”
The death of her sister, Cheryl Reinbold, had been expected as well. “She was in congestive heart failure, kidney failure. She was on a list for kidney replacements, and unfortunately, we didn’t get one in time.”
Elected in November to her first term as a state legislator representing Meriden and parts of Middletown, Cheshire and
Middlefield, Hochadel was able to spend a few days with her father between the election and the oath of office.
“I was able to spend about a little over two weeks, probably in December, with him,” she said. “I just saw this decline. I saw him having these mini-strokes, that the confusion started, that he couldn’t speak, and it was just extremely painful to watch this really, really proud, intelligent man.”
Shortly after officially becoming a senator and being named to chair and sit on legislative committees, Hochadel was faced with taking care of her mother in Florida. She attended to legislative business using Zoom.
“It was, you know, just trying to keep up. Unfortunately, I did miss some votes. They did go into session on the ninth and 10th, so I had to miss those votes obviously to be with my mom,” she said. “I just tried to keep up as best as possible and spent all my downtime reading everything online, trying to keep up. It sometimes felt like drinking water from a fire hose.”
As co-chair of the legislature’s Aging Committee, Hochadel said she’s been focused on a few bills. Among the bills the committee has considered this year is one that would require transparent cost reporting by and ownership of nursing homes and another that would establish minimum nursing home staffing levels, among others.
Hochadel is not only a state senator. She also serves as president of the American Federation of Teachers. She credits her colleagues in both jobs for getting her through the most difficult times.
In the legislature, it was Assistant Majority Leader state Rep. Jane Garibay, D-Windsor, with whom Hochadel co-chairs the committee on aging.
“She really just picked up the reins and ran for me, and I was able to come back and step into it,” Hochadel said of Garibay.
Her colleagues at the AFT were already aware that Hochadel’s work as a senator would take preference during the legislative session.
“Even before I decided to run, I went to my board and asked their opinion, knowing that I’m going to have to, during session, handoff a lot of my work to my colleagues, and they all stepped forward, and we had a plan, and they have been just absolutely amazing,” she said.
Though all proposed bills have been filed in the legislature, Hochadel said the work has not abated. It’s now a little more than a month since two members of her family died, and the legislative work has not ceased.
“We’re still meeting with folks and other commissioners, so to say that it’s ended is not true,” she said. “You keep working, even all year long. So it’s been a challenge.”