Thank you all for the well-wishes for this honor to be a Crain’s Chicago Business Magazine 2020 Health Care Hero.

But it is an honor that I must share with everyone else at Three Crowns Park. When I come to work, I am always surrounded by dedicated people who are intent on making the day a good one for each and every resident. I truly see in my coworkers an overwhelming desire to get through this with each other, for our residents.

This honor belongs also to the front desk team that screens each person that walks into our community, to the maintenance guys that keep the gears running in our buildings.

This honor belongs to the housekeepers and housemen that make sure we’re cleaned from top to bottom. My mom was a housekeeper. I know the hardship you must face—lifting, pushing, pulling, dusting, scrubbing, wiping, high and low, room to room, floor to floor. You keep the environment clean, in turn keeping our residents, and each other free of coronavirus and the effects of COVID19.

This honor belongs to the therapists that make sure each resident can still walk, can still talk, and can still do things as much as they can. This honor belongs to the dining staff that makes sure everyone—residents and our fellow team members—are nourished and have the strength to make it one more day, and another, and another.

Much honor must go to the nurse assistants that do everything and anything to make sure each resident can do what they can, and assist with those activities they can’t do on their own—like getting dressed, getting groomed, walking and wheeling, feeding, and just being an ear to hear and a shoulder to lean on.

To the LPNs and RNs, the health services and social work managers who coordinate with doctors, other health professionals, and family members—making sure residents get the medications and therapies they need, and that loved ones are reassured that we care and we’re on top of things here at Three Crowns Park.

To my fellow directors and COVID19 task force members, you are leaders. You are captains fighting battles of many sizes in a larger war of unknowns. I have great admiration for our executive director, our general, leading us to final victory.

I also must share this honor with the Life Enrichment team. The hardest thing about this situation is that coronavirus mitigation makes daily life lonelier. They’re trying their best to make sure social and mental health—through companionship, conversation, and links to lifelong passions—remains despite the challenges.

And finally, I must share this honor with my mentor. MaryBeth, you steered me into a fifteen year career I never expected to join. You taught me what I need to know about being in a job where your main focus is being for others. You taught me about a job where you learn about the lives of our residents and when they begin to lose their ability to express themselves, you know enough to step in and finish their stories for them. MaryBeth, you taught me about “Person First,” what it means, and to practice it each day. I am where I am because of you.

We, at Three Crowns Park, we are all heroes. My fellow heroes, let’s keep going at it together. We’re going to win this fight against coronavirus. And we’ll come out stronger.