Homebound Here Have Vaccines Brought to Them

Dozens of National Guard troops conducted a door-to-door coronavirus vaccination drive intended for homebound residents of Fayette County last Friday. Fayette County Emergency Management organized the effort.

The Record rode along with one of the National Guard teams, which administered nine shots of the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine to some folks in the northern part of the County.

County officials partnered with local volunteers to identify homebound residents who wanted to get a vaccine.

The first stop was the home of Robin Lucadou, who lives with her mother on a seven acre property a few miles to the west of Round Top. Robin and her late husband Vincent moved in with Robin’s elderly mother in 2014 to help take care of the place. Vincent died from COVID-19 in January.

“I’m glad we’re getting the shot, but I wish he was here,” said Lucadou. “I wish it was happening eight weeks ago.”

Lucadou’s daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend also live on the property, and they got shots as well. So did Lucadou’s sister, who drove in from Brenham for the shot.

The three-person National Guard team set up in the kitchen of Lucadou’s mother’s house. Staff Sgt. Joseph Stelker of the Air Force National Guard, the team’s medic, administered the shots. His fellow airman, Staff Sgt. Roland Rodriguez, handled all the paperwork. Cpl. Macayla Slater of the Army National Guard served as the team’s driver. The team observed everyone who got the shot for at least 15 minutes. Stelker carried some epinephrine injectors to administer in the event of a bad reaction. Thankfully, they weren’t needed on Friday. The team handed a card to everyone who received a shot, which serves as proof that they received a vaccine.

While the team worked in the kitchen, Lucadou shared her family’s COVID story with the Record. She said her husband started feeling bad on Jan. 2. He went in the hospital on Jan. 12 and passed away on Jan. 25. He was 60 years old.

“He was one of the younger ones,” Lucadou said. “We met when I was 14 and he was 16. We were high school sweethearts. It has been real tough.”

The whole family came down with the virus around the time Vincent got sick. Besides trips to the hospital, all of them haven’t left the property much since then.

“We’re looking forward to getting out, getting back to normal, getting back to life again,” she said.

From there, the team drove to a farm near Shelby where they gave out a pair of doses to Leo Miller and his daughter Veronica Miller. The father and daughter are both Air Force veterans, so they teased Slater when they saw her Army insignia.

“You can get back in the van,” Veronica told her. “These guys know what they’re doing.”

Leo Miller, who still runs a sawmill in his 80s despite missing a right foot, acted like he winced in pain as Slater jabbed him, only to let out a laugh when the needle came out.

Veronica said they have stayed mostly at home during the pandemic, except for occasional trips to Round Top Mercantile for groceries.

“There’s no way I’m going to town now, not with all those people,” she said referring to the ongoing Spring Antiques Shows.

The vaccination effort last Friday was aimed at the homebound, but not everyone who got a vaccine was at home. The team’s last stop was at the antiques show in Warrenton. The address on the team’s list turned out to be an antiques venue across the highway from Ya Ya Girls in Warrenton. The airmen in military fatigues walked from booth to booth among the crowd trying to find the two people on their list. They turned out to be the proprietors of a corn dog stand who live in the Dakotas.

The team administered the shots since the two people were registered. The Record asked Fayette County Emergency Management Chief Craig Moreau how those two people got on the list.

“That’s not who this was intended for,” Moreau said. “I don’t know how they got on the list, but I’ll look into it.”