Page 74 - FDCC Pandemic Book

Living in a Pandemic: A Collection of Stories on Coping, Resilience & Hope
declining condition on February 14, 2020. I got the call that day around 4pm that he was unresponsive and raced to the nursing home. When I got there he was coming around and I will never forget how he touched my cheek and looked at me, but no words came out. It was evident to me at that point in time that my father was going to pass away soon. I asked him to wait just one more day so that my brother and mother could go and see him.
My father, being the unselfish man he has always been, did exactly as I told him. I decided to return to the nursing home the next evening with my husband and when I arrived at the room, my father was actively dying. I made sure he was comfortable and calm and we stayed with him for a half hour. As I have learned through litigating nursing home cases, people generally do not die in front of their loved ones and he was struggling. I called the CNA and told her to please stay with him after I left as I did not want him to be alone. We left and I received the call from my mother almost 15 minutes later that he had passed away. The next few days I spent planning his service and making the arrangements. In hindsight, it was a blessing that he died when he did and we were able to celebrate his life. Even though an adult, the loss of a parent hits hard.
As is usual for me and one of my coping mechanisms, I threw myself into work and was gearing up for a busy year with business travel, work obligations, family celebrations and vacations. It was wonderful to see everyone at the FDCC meeting in March. There was chatter about COVID-19 and stocking up on hand sanitizer, but none of us really had any idea what to expect when we parted ways. When I boarded the flight home and saw people in masks and wearing gloves, I had a sinking feeling things were quickly about to change. Within days of returning from Arizona, things pretty much shut down in New Jersey and my clients’ needs kicked into high gear.
My practice focuses on two primary areas-employment and labor and healthcare. I do a significant amount of work for nursing homes, in particular. Frankly, March and April were a blur. Every hour of every day, new and novel legal issues and difficult questions with no good answers were the norm. Some clients faced life and death situations, others were haunted by layoffs of employees and economic challenges. It felt like non-stop grieving with my clients and trying to work our way through something completely unprecedented health wise and economically, with no clear road map. In addition to my growing client needs, at this time my law firm leaned on me heavily as chair of our employment and labor section and an equity partner to provide thought leadership throughout the pandemic.
As lawyers we are naturally risk averse and here there was no blueprint or right answer to identifying and managing the risks. At this time, we were also moving to a fully remote environment and as a leader in the firm, I had to find ways to keep my colleagues motivated and their spirits up during the most difficult of times, knowing that each and every one was struggling in one way or another. We had
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