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Heroes on the front line: Mary Brier

Helping hand: Mary Brier tries to help the elderly during the pandemic one meal at a time (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

While most of us are safe at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, essential workers put their lives at risk to keep Bermuda going. The Royal Gazette salutes these selfless men and women in hospitals, supermarkets, delivery vans, gas stations and other key services with our new series

A dispatcher has continued to co-ordinate food deliveries for seniors in need — even though she has to work on her own because of Covid-19 restrictions.

Mary Brier, 49, a dispatcher for Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to vulnerable seniors stuck at home, spends most of her time working for the charity because she cares about the welfare of seniors.

She said: “I don’t see myself as a hero; I just think that we all make choices every day — even every moment — and you could either choose to do good or not.

“My philosophy in life is to just be useful and help others, so I choose to do good.”

Ms Brier, from Devonshire, said that her role involved the organisation of the 115 meals sent out every day and mapping out the delivery routes.

She explained that there used to be four dispatchers at the charity, but they were all sent home when lockdown measures for Covid-19 started because of their age.

Ms Brier said that she was moved from her role as a driver to be the sole dispatcher.

She added that she “can’t really have a day off” because of the demands of the job, but she was training other volunteers to help carry the load.

Ms Brier said: “We have younger people who are willing to learn dispatching, so when people finally retire, we’ll have some more people ready to help.”

Ms Brier has no contact with clients for her safety as well as theirs — although she admitted she sometimes worried about her health.

However, she said that she was comforted by the charity’s health measures, which included wearing a mask and gloves, as well as six-feet social-distancing from other volunteers.

Ms Brier said that, although she suffered from migraines, she stuck to the job.

She explained: “I do get migraines, but I work through them. It doesn’t matter what I feel like, I know I’m doing something good and that’s important.

“Even if you’re not feeling good, I think it’s important to still help others.”

Miriam MacCoy, the volunteer co-ordinator for Meals on Wheels, said that Ms Brier had always been a “trouper” and was nominated for volunteer of the year in 2019.

Ms MacCoy added: “She has her own health issues but she doesn’t allow them to stop her.

“She is the only one of our dispatchers still with us at this time and she hasn’t missed a day.”

UPDATE: This article has been amended to correct the misspelling of Mary Brier’s name. We apologise for the error.