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LANETT — Lanett Senior Center Director Tammy Hollis said she’s been going through “a sad, sad time” with the senior center being closed for several weeks now. She said she misses her seniors and knows they have missed coming to the center five days a week.
“I understand why we are doing this, and I want everyone to be as safe as they can be,” she said. “As we all know, seniors are a vulnerable group to COVID-19. Thankfully, no one at the center has tested positive.”
Hollis and her staff are staying busy making sure 26 Lanett seniors have food delivered to their homes on Monday through Friday.
“Before the pandemic hit, we were serving 34 seniors either at the center or at their homes. Since then, some of our seniors have moved in with their families as a safety precaution. One of our seniors died of natural causes; she didn’t have the coronavirus. One of our seniors tested positive during the shutdown. She’s in her eighties and has recovered from it, thank God, and is now in a nursing home.”
Hollis said senior center programs are all about socialization.
“They miss coming to the center and being around their friends,” she said. “It’s really sad what we are going through. I want them to be safe, but I sure would like for us to be back together again.”
Hollis and the staff are keeping busy getting the food out to seniors in their homes.
“The food comes here every day from Montgomery,” she said. “It’s been cooked, but we make sure every meal meets a minimum temperature before we take it to their home. Thirteen of our seniors drive to the center every day to pick up their meal.”
Representatives of the state office in Anniston come every Thursday to see if everything is going okay. They are popular with the seniors – they usually bring sandwiches with them and include them in the meals that are going out.
“They have been really good in keeping this program going,” Hollis said. “We will probably be closed as long as the pandemic is going. We want everyone to be safe, but we do want to reopen the center when we can.”