Transcript

We climb up ladders, we get in the back of pickup trucks, we ride on golf carts, we do whatever we have to do to get to where we're going. 

"I'm getting sandblasted."

It started yesterday for me. Coming off of one island and picking up the vaccine. Then this morning, got up and went to the mailboat and went to Islesford and did the vaccines there. 

"I'm going to go down and help them." 

And then caught a lobster boat over to Great Cranberry.

Island communities are small, they're very intertwined. COVID would spread really fast. 

"I wish we could do it with a little less wind. We went to Monhegan Maginicus. Everywhere we've gone, we've had wind." 

"It's a lot of fun in islands."

I love what I do, and I care about the people that I work with. So you can't give up, you just need to do it for them. 

I swear, every time we're packing stuff, it's always low tide so that this ramp is steep. Maybe we should just get the truck. 

When I've come out here to do flu clinics, I've gotten, like, caught—people will say "Oh you're only 3 miles, that can't be bad." It's like, yeah, you can still drown.

"Hey Steph, how are you?"

Off the coast of Maine, there's 4,000 islands, and there's only now 15 of them that are inhabited year-round. 

"So we're doing the whole family today, huh?"

"I think so, yeah. You got my brother anyways. There's a lot more of us."

"So you know you need to wait for 15 minutes."

"Yeah, OK."

"And, you know, you might feel a little achy and fluey."

"OK, all right" 

"Your brother was going to use it as an excuse not to work today, he said so."

"Oh, sounds like him, yeah." 

"How's your mom?"

"Oh, she's doing well. As a matter of fact, I just dropped off a whole thing of chicken rice soup I just made for her this morning."

"Oh, that was nice." 

"Oh, yeah. Well.." 

"Left arm?"

"Yes, please." 

"It's good to use the arm that I give this in, and it tends to get a little less sore. There you go. Did I sign your card already?" 

"Uhh..."

"Yep. You're gonna lose your sticker, it's not good. Relax your arm if you can. There you go."

"Perfect."

"It's so cool though, I have like 20 layers on today." 

"Oh, I know. OK, so wait for 15 minutes." 

I think nurses always measure what they do, you know, by little things and people have been so grateful, and you know people have laughed and danced, and people have cried. We're all in this together, and we're all trying to get this done. So we have to work together, and I see a lot of that in doing this. Everybody's doing the best they can to get this vaccine around, and I wish that we could apply that to the rest of what we do.