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Spending their Christmas on the job

For many East Pierce residents, the holiday means clocking in to work

By Avani Nadkarni/of The Herald

For the past three years, caregiver Sandi Martin has worked on Christmas Day. Instead of bemoaning her fate, however, Martin, a devout Christian who works at Puyallup’s Merrill Gardens Retirement Center, sees it as a blessing.

“It gives me an opportunity to share and have fun with the residents on Christmas,” she explained.

Of the facility’s 97 residents, about half are at Merrill Gardens at some point on Christmas Day, said General Manager Mary Susan Gibson. Many leave to have dinner with their families and return to Merrill Gardens, but many others simply do not have anywhere to go. Those are the residents Martin and fellow caretaker Rachel Barker want to reach out to.

“I think you have to make (the residents’) day special,” said Barker, who’s also working on Christmas this year. “Some of them don’t have family, or they’re not nearby. To me, Christmas is about giving to them.”

Nicole Gonzales, a registered nurse who works in the emergency room of MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, takes a similarly optimistic perspective. She has been a nurse for five years and at Good Samaritan, she said, nurses are expected to work at least two holidays throughout the year. This year, she worked Labor Day and is working on Christmas, too.

Gonzales said she expects to see a number of lonely people wander in through the emergency room door on Dec. 25.

“The holidays are kind of a hard time for a lot of people,” she said. “Sometimes they come to the ER if they don’t have anywhere to go. We try to be warm and ... take good care of them.”

As for their own Christmas celebrations, Martin, Barker and Gonzales said their families adjust the festivities to accommodate their schedules.

Martin and her husband generally either have their big holiday dinner on Dec. 26 or the weekend after Christmas.

“You kind of miss not celebrating it with everybody else ... but it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate it with residents,” Martin said.

It can be tough on her husband, she admitted, but he’s happy to move the dinner to another day.

“He knows this is my job and he knows I love my job,” she explained. “So he doesn’t really object to it.”

Gonzales also said her family is understanding about her schedule.

“Normally, we just celebrate on Christmas Eve if I (am working) on Christmas,” she said. “We work around my work schedule and (this year) I get off at 7:30 p.m. so I can go home and be with my family at night.”

It’s a little easier for Barker, who has only worked with Merrill Gardens since July. She never had to work on Christmas at her previous job at a department store, but her family’s holiday traditions have always been unconventional.

“To me, (working on Christmas) doesn’t matter that much,” she explained. “We’ve always celebrated our Christmas not necessarily on Christmas but whenever we could all get together.”

This year, that meant celebrating this past Saturday, Dec. 19, at her daughter’s Issaquah home.

In a way, all three women have two Christmas celebrations: One with family and one at work.

Christmas Day at Merrill Gardens means a special holiday meal for the residents and Barker, Martin and other staff that are working are invited to join them.

At Good Samaritan’s emergency room, Gonzales said the doctors and nurses hold a potluck and try to celebrate when they have some downtime.

“Everybody I work with are good friends and have become a family ourselves,” Gonzales said. “We try to bring in food and we try to do a little bit of celebrating at work.”

All three get paid overtime for their duties, but Martin said spending the holiday with Merrill Garden’s residents has another perk.

“I never had a grandpa or grandma I could grow up with,” Martin explained. “I just love the residents. I really like working with these people ... it’s a blessing to spend Christmas with them.”