Roger Hunter has been a resident at Parkland Saint John in New Brunswick for nearly a year now. Before retirement, Roger worked as the Director of Corporate Services for the Department of Agriculture. He spent much of his life giving back to the community through volunteering for various organizations such as the United Way and the Deafblind and Rubella Association. He enjoys being a part of the community at Parkland Saint John and volunteering to support with activities or other tasks around his residence when he can.

Roger says that safety, security and health and wellness played a large role in choosing where he decided to live. “My children know I’m safe,” says Roger. “I sold my property about five years ago, because it became too much. I then moved to an apartment, and that didn’t work out for me. I looked at every facility in Saint John and Parkland was the best place. If you look around, everything you need is here in the area, such as the hospital, dentist, drug store, golf course…all within walking distance. There is no place I would rather be living right now than Parkland Saint John. Since I am unable to be with my daughter in Vancouver, and my son in North Carolina, I plan to spend the rest of my life here.”

Roger was out running errands when he received an email from his General Manager stating that his community would be putting restrictions in place for visitors and visits outside of campus. “I remember getting the email from our General Manager that our building would be closed to visitors due to the pandemic. I had all these plans beforehand – In March, I was planning a visit to Vancouver to see my daughter for her 50^th birthday and the whole world turned upside down.”

Roger says that everyone living at Parkland followed the rules, did not leave the property, wore masks when required and practiced good hygiene and maintained social distancing. He is pleased to say that nobody at his residence became ill with the virus to date.

Both of Roger’s children, along with his grandchildren live out of province. Roger stayed connected to them through phone conversations, e-mail, and text as he did before COVID-19. It wasn’t until COVID-19 that he discovered FaceTime.

We followed Roger around for a day with a videographer to see what life was like inside of Parkland during the pandemic. With camera’s rolling, we were able to capture Roger FaceTiming his daughter living in Vancouver for the very first time. The emotion of the connection was felt by everyone in the room. A beautiful moment of a loving reunion witnessed during a time where connecting with others has become so challenging.

Stay tuned on our Facebook page next week where we will share video footage of our time with Roger  and some of the Superstar team members working at Parkland Saint John.