Katie Adduci began volunteering with Honor Flight Chicago for the past two years. The wife of an Army veteran whose uncle was killed in Vietnam, Katie was honored to be a medical guardian on the very first flight of HFC’s Vietnam era last June.
“I’ve never gotten to serve our country in that way, so it is a tiny way for me to be able to say thank you to those I consider a hero,” she said.
Katie is experiencing those thank you sentiments herself these days.
The community surrounding her hospital set up a meal train for the ER. Twice a day someone from the community either purchases food from a restaurant, or the restaurant itself has brought in meals. There are hand-made thank you signs populating the hospital lawn. Families they have taken care of in the past are sending in cards.
“It’s truly wonderful,” Katie said. Yet, as she says: “Our veterans signed up just to do what was right at the time, and some of them feel silly for being thanked and called heroes. We are doing the exact same thing, and it feels a little silly to be thanked for doing our jobs.”
This pandemic is causing our medical professionals to go above and beyond just doing their jobs, however.
Katie herself has already been on one 14-day quarantine. Her 10-year-old son is at high risk for complications from COVID-19, so Katie moved out of the house on March 12 and has been living in a friend’s basement.“We are just being extra cautious,” she said. “I haven’t been able to hug my family, though I have seen them from the car from a safe distance. Everyone asks me if they can drop stuff off at my house to help and the answer is NO! You can stay home, wash your hands and don’t touch your face.”
At Katie’s hospital, tents have been set up outside to keep COVID-19 patients separate from everyone else – something Katie has never seen happen before in all of her years as an ER nurse. They fully expect a surge of patients over the next two weeks, both because of the spread of the virus and from panicked public who want to be tested.
Katie describes volunteering with Honor Flight Chicago as a privilege, and we believe it is a privilege to have her on our team. Thank you!!
“Our veterans signed up just to do what was right at the time, and some of them feel silly for being thanked and called heroes. We are doing the exact same thing, and it feels a little silly to be thanked for doing our jobs.”