You never know when the weather will turn on you. Fran Goldman is a 90-year-old woman who, on the morning of her first vaccine appointment, was met with a foot of snow. According to Goldman, walking the six miles wasn’t difficult compared to scheduling her vaccine appointment.
“I have been calling to get an appointment anywhere, every morning, every afternoon and often I’ve been online at night,” Goldman told the SeattleTimes. She would call the state of Department of Health every morning and ask them to help her find something. “Nada. Nothing,” Goldman said. “Every day.”
She even went to local grocery stores with in-store pharmacies, hoping for a spot. Her daughter Ruth, who lives in Buffalo, New York, would also help by making phone calls and searching through the web to find something. A friend who lives in Arizona also chipped in to help.
A Glimmer of Hope
Goldman eventually caught a break when she got online with Seattle Children’s hospital, which was administering vaccines. She went through all the questions and wasn’t expecting anything. Then a window opened, asking what time she wanted to come in. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Goldman said. “I had to get my glasses to see if I was really seeing it.”
Goldman immediately made an appointment for Sunday at 9:10 AM. Unfortunately, a snowstorm was headed her way. When Saturday came around, she woke up to several inches of snow on the ground. And as if to prepare for a sporting event, Goldman decided to do a practice run and see if she would be able to walk the distance. She got about two-thirds of the way to the hospital and turned around, confident she would be able to make it the next day.
On Sunday morning at 8, she got onto the Burke-Gilman Trail and headed out. “It was not easy going; it was challenging,” she said, adding that the tracks had frozen over and been covered with more snow.
Goldman eventually made it to her appointment. Although she was 5 minutes late, there were no issues. “I knew how far it was, I knew how long it would take me,” Goldman said. “Had it been shorter, I would have been happier. But I made it.”