In an op-ed Nov. 11 (“Maine Voices: Get our state back to work by getting fully vaccinated”), I urged Mainers to roll up their sleeves and get us – all of us – back to work. Since then, I’ve worked at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention mass COVID vaccine and testing clinics at the Augusta Armory.

I have many clinic stories, but one stands out. The work yields many joys, the biggest being the kids. Most clinic guests are adults, but there are kids, and their eyes light up when we bring them coloring books, crayons and little toys to use while they wait their turn. It’s great to see kids with non-electronic amusements. That can only be good.

But one kid is etched indelibly in my mind. He came with his mother, just the two of them, and he didn’t want a coloring book. He had bigger fish to fry.

He sat in the waiting area with a look of seriousness, purpose and mission such as I had never seen in an adult, much less a kid his age. It was a look of sheer determination that said: “I’m going to will myself through this, come what may.” And at one point he looked up at me. “I’m doing this for my family and my community,” he said.

I was blown away. I had never heard anything more concise, thoughtful and forthright.

Like everyone, I wish the pandemic would end yesterday, but if I work another hundred clinics, I’ll never see anyone braver than that kid.

Lawrence Reichard
Belfast

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