Elmer Mork visits his wife Patricia at Wrangell Medical Center's long-term care facility on March 11. Elmer and Pat had been separated by the COVID-19 pandemic for almost a year.
"I think it was '52 that we got married, I met her just before," Elmer Mork said about his wife Patricia. "She was the 1950 queen, Fourth of July Queen. The first one. I'm kind of lucky to find a queen."
Elmer and Patricia Mork met back in the 1950s at a dance, Elmer said. He caught her eye and said she would like to meet him, and asked him to dance. The rest is history.
"My older sister taught me how to do the jitterbug thing," he said.
Elmer, 91, and Patricia, 87, have been married about 70 years, and have spent most of their lives in Wrangell. Recently, their relationship faced the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patricia lives in long term-care at the Wrangell Medical Center, Elmer said, and at the start of the pandemic visitors were not allowed in, to protect the elderly residents. That was the situation for close to a year, said Elmer and Pat's daughter-in-law Marilyn Mork, but starting last month Elmer got to visit his wife for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
"March 11 was the first day he got to go and see her," Marilyn said. "He currently can go there Monday through Friday from 2 to 4 to visit her."
SEARHC Long-Term Care Administrator Kay Turner said in as March 15 email that the medical center is operating at the highest level of COVID-19 mitigation, due to the alert level for Southeast Alaska. This means visitation is only allowed in "compassionate care" situations - either an end-of-life situation or another situation deemed necessary by facility leadership.
"SEARHC is currently working with the state of Alaska to change our visitation policy and expand visitation as the alert level drops in our area," Turner said. "We continue to promote video and phone calls at all times, and will gradually re-introduce in-person visitation as soon as it is deemed safe."
There are several guidelines in place to ensure the visits are safe, Marilyn Mork said. Elmer has to take a COVID-19 test every three days, she said, and he and Patricia have both been vaccinated. They also have to call ahead of time to let long-term care know he is coming to visit.
As of now, he is the only family member allowed to visit, she said, but they are both much happier now that they can visit.
"She doesn't want him to leave," Marilyn said. "The funny part is after his first few visits he said, 'What can I break to go in there and stay?' ... I think he would like to be with her but he knows he can't live there until he can't take care of himself."
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