Resident of The Bristal Skypes With Sister After 8 years Apart

Margareth Gruenwald, a former Port Washington resident who now lives with dementia related issues in the Reflections neighborhood at The Bristal Assisted Living at Lake Grove visits with her sister Christa who lives in Austria via Skype. They have not been together in person since 2012.

Margareth Gruenwald and her sister Christa recently Skyped. During the COVID-19 pandemic many Long Islanders are of course catching up utilizing Skype, FaceTime, Zoom or other video platforms. But for Margareth, this was a very special call. The 83 year old former Port Washington resident now lives with dementia related issues in the Reflections neighborhood at The Bristal Assisted Living at Lake Grove.

Margareth, the oldest of nine children moved to Long Island more than fifty years ago from Austria. She had not seen Christa since 2012, and had not skyped with her in more than a year. But the COVID pandemic has forced many residents to stay in touch with their family members through on screen video chats, and that opened the door for The Bristal at Lake Grove’s Director of Recreation, Lindsay Navetta, who encouraged Margareth to reconnect with her family in Vienna via Skype.

Margareth is the only of her siblings not living in Austria. Her daughter Beate says when she and her parents moved to the United States in 1967, they felt very lonely. Regular phone calls to Austria were prohibitively costly so their only means of communication were letters back and forth between Long Island and Europe.

According to Navetta, when the Skype screen turned on Margareth perked up and said, “oh that’s my sister Christa!” Navetta says, “Margareth was so excited to see Christa and engage with her face to face on the screen. The spark in Margareth’s eye and smile on her face when she saw her sister pop up on the screen is something I haven’t seen from her in a while.”

Christa, who is 77, plays the keyboard for birthday parties at an assisted living community in Vienna. Due to COVID she has been unable to play for the residents. “Playing the keyboard during the skype session with Margareth singing along to the old time Viennese songs brought me so much joy”

Margareth’s daughter Beate says, “Skyping is so beneficial to everyone who lives far away from family. It truly feels like an in-person visit. Whether we’re laughing, just conversing or having coffee thousands of miles away it feels like we’re sitting in a coffee shop together. Technology really helps keep everyone in touch.”

Now that Margareth has connected with Christa, Navetta says she and her fellow team members at The Bristal hope to encourage Margareth to reconnect with other siblings and family members in Austria as well.