FRANKFORT, Ky. — Every day at 10 a.m., Kentuckians ring their bells for COVID-19 victims.
Kandie Adkinson has been ringing a bell at the Capitol most days since early in the pandemic.
“Actually, I think I’ve built up a muscle,” Adkinson said in response to a question about if her arm has gotten sore.
She works in the Secretary of State’s land records office, dealing with thousands of documents daily.
“Obviously, I can’t work from home,” Adkinson said.
And when Spectrum News 1 first caught up with her Adkinson in July, she was using her father’s bell.
“But there are people all over the Capitol that are saying we need to get Kandie a bigger bell so that we can hear it downstairs in the basement,” Adkinson said.
Now she’s ringing a bigger bell one of the Capitol security guards gave her, making sure everyone in the building knows when to pause and honor those battling the virus.
“I’m not a nurse or a doctor, but I can do the bell ringing,” Adkinson said. “I can light my house green, just as the governor said. It’s a united front.”
Adkinson just received her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and should have her second shot before Easter.
She’s hoping to attend in-person services at her church in Lexington.
“They have been having virtual services but I’m looking forward to being with my brothers and sisters in that church again,” Adkinson said.
Getting vaccinated also means getting to see more of her great-grandson who was born just as the lockdown started.
The child was born premature, and Adkinson says she’s grateful for the doctors who helped make sure he’d be healthy a year later.
“Yes, it was an inconvenience, but the baby was more important than our moments of wishing we could see someone we couldn’t see yet,” Adkinson said.
It won’t be long before more moments with loved ones can happen again.