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When Bernice Sutherland gets a chance to visit her home community of Moosonee, she would love to go on a boat, go fishing and eat wild meat again.
Sutherland is a nurse working at a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. She worked as a nurse in Moose Factory for a few years before moving to Florida in 2004, where she is still residing.
Last year, her plans to visit Moosonee got cancelled. So, she is hoping to visit her family in June for about a month and see her grandson, whom she hasn’t seen since he was born almost two years ago.
“I want to eat moose meat and goose and dumplings ... And, of course, see everybody, visit friends as well,” she says. “I just want to see everybody. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”
During the first wave of the pandemic as she was working in the COVID unit, Sutherland says she was feeling very stressed and exhausted.
In the second wave, she would see people in the hall on stretchers, “that’s how bad it was,” she says.
“With the first wave, they shut everything down pretty much. But with the second wave, nothing shut down,” Sutherland says. “I would drive by restaurants on my way home and they’d be full.”
According to the CDC’s COVID data tracker, the number of cases in Duval County, where Jacksonville is located, has been on a decline since its peak in early January.
Sutherland got transferred to the observation unit last fall and says the situation is getting better now.
“The numbers have gone down. It’s less stressful, for sure,” she says.
Sutherland has experienced having the virus and she received two doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Dec. 1, she started having her first COVID symptoms that included having chills, a headache, weakness and a high fever. She had to wait for three days before she felt better and was able to get tested at work.
“I was in denial thinking I’m not going to get COVID. I’ve been wearing my mask and I’ve done this and that,” she recalls from her experience.
“Even trying to eat, I was short of breath … just to get to the kitchen and back was such a taxing effort. I’ve never felt so horrible. Being alone was hard but I had a lot of friends messaging me, offering to bring food by the door.”
It took Sutherland 21 days to get back to work from the first day she got infected.
Dec. 23, she received her first dose of the vaccine. At first, she says she didn’t feel anything but she woke up in the middle of the night having joint pain and a high temperature. The same happened when she received her second dose in January.
“It was like I had COVID all over again,” she says.
In her downtime, Sutherland has been remodelling her house and watching Netflix. After her shifts, she takes one full day to “decompress” and do nothing. Her friends have also been helping her cope with the pandemic.
“I’m blessed to have good friends here,” she says.
Sutherland has also been nominated for the Daisy Award for the extraordinary efforts she makes at the hospital every day. This was her second nomination and only 25 nurses in the entire hospital were selected, she says.
