Car parade brightens life for Greensburg nursing home during shutdown

Bob Ross had no idea when he’d get to see his mother again.

The Hempfield man faithfully visited 96-year-old Ileen Osterwise at the Greensburg Care Center two or three times a week.

During his last visit to the nursing home on March 12, Osterwise, who has Alzheimer’ Disease, had been sleeping. So Ross didn’t bother waking her.

“Sometimes she doesn’t know me, but I know her. So, that’s OK. I just live 10 minutes away. I figured I’d see her tomorrow. But then tomorrow comes and they’re shutdown,” Ross said.

Like nursing homes across the nation, the center instituted a quarantine to keep vulnerable patients safe.

Jennifer Ezykowsky, activity director at the nursing home that houses 105 patients, said the quarantine has worked. No one has come down with covid-19.

But boredom was building. Last week, she decided the patients needed something, so she began calling regular visitors and invited them to come to a family parade Saturday.

Ross was among the first to answer Ezykowsky’s call.

“I thought I might be the only one. But Saturday there was a long, long line of cars. People brought flags and signs with messages for patients. I brought my Terrible Towel to wave out the window,” he said.

And sure enough, sitting there in her wheelchair enjoying the sun and the sudden change of pace was Osterwise.

Ross said he visited with other family members during the slow moving parade and snapped a couple of pictures to send to siblings and grandchildren who lived too far away to go to the parade.

The parade attracted scores of cars that circled the center parking lot lasted about 30 minutes.