Kimberly Marselas

As a journalist, there’s not much better than writing a story that touches a nerve and gets people talking.

When you share our work, we know we’ve hit on a critical topic or found a new perspective that serves you and, potentially, influences change.

I’ve been lucky enough to do that a few times in 2021, and for that, on a week that is all about gratitude, I want to say thank you, dear readers.

Thank you for doing the life-sustaining work that we only have to write about, for facing another year of unimaginable challenges, some old, some new and some you just plain wish would go away for good.

Thank you for making 2021 another meaningful year for McKnight’s, for giving us even a glimpse into the hardships you and your residents face and telling us what you need to succeed.

Thank you for allowing us to tell your stories and for pointing us to intelligent and insightful sources within your organizations who help bring those stories to life with eloquence. It’s remarkable how so many of you are able to pivot from day-to-day stresses and conduct an interview with so much pride in your work that your confidence radiates through the phone.

Thanks for answering my questions whether you’re building is bustling or you’re traveling or, as sometimes is required of me, I’m asking you to address something you don’t want to talk about at all. Opening up to us demonstrates that you trust McKnight’s and recognize that your peers in long-term care might have lessons to learn from your very real experiences.

Thanks, too, for sharing your opinions with me throughout 2021, even when they don’t match the ones I’ve included in this column. Sharing is caring, and I truly believe that caring for others — having empathy for one another  — is the best way for all of us to learn and to grow. 

And finally, thank you for teaching me so much this year about the skilled nursing sector and the people who make it so special. So many of you have inspired me, whether recounting what brought you to a career in long-term care, delivering words of wisdom at a conference, or sharing your own survival stories.

Knowing the importance of the work you do makes me all the more careful in the reporting and writing that I do.

I am so grateful to do what I love for a living, and I want that for all of you too.

To all of you whom I owe a little debt of gratitude, I wish you time to relax and reflect on your own happiness this holiday season. Be well.

Kimberly Marselas is senior editor of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.

Opinions expressed in McKnight’s columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s.