This Q&A is the sixth in a 19-part series, “19 COVID-19 Stories,” updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, diving into the unique perspectives of the Corvallis community as they face COVID-19 and all its social and economic effects. 

Jennifer Miranda is the owner and a caregiver at Miranda Manor Care Home, LLC, a care home for elderly seniors. Her goal is to protect the health of the residents and staff at the Miranda Manor Care Home. Some of the home’s residents are also immunocompromised. Miranda says her experience taking care of elderly people has taught her that “simply making dinner together is huge.” 

Miranda and her group are currently looking to hire part-time student caregivers. The link to the application can be found below. 

What is your day-to-day life right now? 

It is quite hectic as you can only imagine. My daily goal is to protect the health of my residents and staff to the best of my ability. Therefore, I created a “bubble environment” as soon as I became aware of the virus threat and have increasingly added more intense infection preventive steps. 

Prior to running my own adult foster home, I ran a large facility and knew first-hand how quickly a virus could derail the entire community. I shut the home down to all visitors and allowed only 1-2 family members to visit per resident. I asked the families to visit outside and to not make contact with our immunocompromised residents. 

My staff and I are wearing masks and gloves to prevent carrying around any germs to the residents. I also have each staff member change into scrubs upon arrival that I provide. They then remove them to the wash when their shift is over.  

I restricted all outside personal items to remaining outside of the house. I already order our groceries and household supplies from Walmart and pick them up in my own bag. Each item is washed down with clorox wipes and fruit and fresh vegetables are washed prior to entering the home. We are practicing proper handwashing, droplet precautions and acting as if we are carriers. I’m working more hours as my full-time caregiver is out sick but thankfully not with the COVID-19 virus.  

We also are trying to keep the daily activities for the residents as normal as possible and supplement their lack of physical contact with facetime technology. We live on 6-1/2 acres so our people have room to spread out when it is nice enough to go outside. Due to the increased precautions and less employees available, my paperwork and taxes have taken a backseat. Thank God I have been given grace time for taxes!

What has been the hardest part of this pandemic for you? 

Obtaining the necessary items needed: PPEs, TP, Papertowels, disinfectants, etc. as well as managing my own fear that people truly aren’t taking the severity of this situation seriously.  

My motto: Control the controllables and pray for the ignorant. When my anxiety reaches a red level…my mantra “Jesus, I trust in you!” 

What do you wish people knew about your experience taking care of elderly people? 

The importance of giving this generation the respect they so deserve and dignity in every way possible. It’s also so vital that they feel purposeful in order to enjoy their life. Simply making dinner together is huge.

Anybody who is interested in applying to work at Miranda Manor can apply here.