Residents of St. Louis care home overwhelmed with Christmas greetings from around the world

By Teena Monteleone

Pauline Doucet knew her residents needed a pick-me-up.

Most of the 14 seniors in her long-term care home in St. Louis haven’t seen their family in months because of the COVID-19 pandemic and she could see sadness starting to creep in.

“A couple of the residents get mail on a regular basis and I noticed that when I gave it to them it really brightened their day, so I wanted to see if people would send all of the residents a card,” Doucet told paNOW.

She posted a request on River’s Edge Villa Senior Personal Care Home Facebook page asking strangers to submit Christmas cards. Her post was seen more than 17,000 times and shared over 600 times. Each resident received 31 cards after she picked up the first mail bundle. In the second bundle, each resident received 81 cards.

“I got over 3,000 cards within a three-week period from Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Wisconsin, Manitoba and every town in Saskatchewan you can think of,” Doucet said.

And it wasn’t just cards they received. People actually took the time to write individualized letters to each resident. They sent ornaments and pictures of their kids and dogs. Someone from Manitoba even made Christmas pillowcases for each of the residents.

“It was totally amazing. The residents loved the ones from kids and schools. They would show each other the pictures drawn by kindergarten kids and it would be a stick-man drawing and they would joke ‘it looks exactly like you.’”

Residents were kept busy reading cards and letters from strangers around the globe. (Facebook/River’s Edge Villa Senior Personal Care Home)
Doucet said some of the residents who are able to sent thank you cards in return. She hopes the letters will continue coming beyond Christmas and that more care homes can benefit from this type of kindness.

“They don’t need 80 cards a day, but if they get a card every once in a while to keep their spirits up, that would be great,” she said. “They miss their loved ones so much, so that little card cheered them up and it gave them something to do all week because I would quarantine the cards and give it to them on Sunday. They would read those cards over and over.”

Doucet said many of the cards were signed from ‘someone who cares’ and that in itself was an important message.

“It’s a good reminder not to forget about our seniors during the holidays or any time of year because they are the backbone of any community.”