Unexpected friendship between student, Northwood resident blossoms amid COVID-19

Every Wednesday afternoon, 82-year-old Charlotte Burns gets a phone call from a woman she's never met in person.

Burns lives at Northwood's Halifax campus, the long-term care home that is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Nova Scotia. The voice on the other end of the line belongs to 22-year-old Allyson Cook.

"She sounds like a very caring person, and if she volunteers she has to be," Burns said. "I like the young people too, you know. I get along better with the young people." 

Despite their 60-year age difference, they've formed what Cook calls an unexpected friendship since they started talking at the beginning of the pandemic.

"Charlotte finds humour in everything," said Cook, a graduate student at Dalhousie University in Halifax and a volunteer with Northwood's Get Connected program. "She's in that targeted population for COVID, and she's just her same old self. It's not getting to her at all."

The Get Connected program is meant to provide Northwood residents with a social connection through a regular phone call with a volunteer. The program has been around since 2016, but is now an even more important lifeline — and not only for residents.

Cook said the weekly calls are helping her cope with the pandemic, and she's come to rely on Burns's unshakeable optimism as a much-needed distraction and sense of comfort.

'It's really inspiring'

"I have friends and family members that are elderly as well and I worry about them," Cook said. "But seeing how well she's doing and listening to her be so prepared to fight this, it's really inspiring."

Even though Burns misses visiting her friends and riding the bus, she still gets outside every day. She's had a heart attack and open-heart surgery three times, but said she doesn't worry about contracting the virus herself.

"I worry more about the younger people getting it," said Burns, a retired registered nurse at the Halifax Infirmary who grew up in New Germany, N.S. "When I wake up in the morning, I know that I have another day to make some people happy. That's my attitude."

She's also worried about the staff coming into Northwood and the possibility of them contracting COVID-19.

71 new volunteers 

Northwood's Get Connected program has seen a huge jump in volunteers since the pandemic started. Of the program's roughly 90 volunteers — some are still on a wait list — 71 of them stepped in to help over the last two months, a spokesperson for the facility said.

Burns is a resident of the independent living building at Northwood, which is a separate tower from the main facility where 52 people had died due to COVID-19, as of Friday.

Cook said getting to know someone who lives at the centre of the outbreak has given her a new perspective on the crisis.

"I think despite all the stuff that's going on, Northwood remains a really positive environment, which I wouldn't have expected," she said.

I like the young people too, you know. I get along better with the young people. ​​​​- Charlotte Burns, Northwood resident

It didn't take long for the two to realize they had a lot in common. Through their phone calls, they've discovered they both share a love of the outdoors and Burns was also a volunteer at Northwood before she moved in nearly a decade ago.

Her secret to staying positive throughout the pandemic has been to take every day as it comes.

"I made it this far and I enjoy life, the little bit that I can do," she said. "I make use of every day I have. Now that to me is the only motto at a certain age you can take."

Burns and Cook hope to meet in person when they can.