Amy Poulin, R.N. “This is the New Normal.”

“I live in Lisbon Falls,” said Amy Poulin. R.N.,  as she was browsing through cook books at a book store in South Portland on Saturday afternoon. Those words caught my breath because that small Maine town where the suspected mass murderer Robert Ward was found deceased, is now associated with other small places across the country – places where devastating mass murders have also taken place – Sandy Hook, Connecticut and Uvalde, Texas among them.  Lewiston, known for other reasons previously, is now in the national memory bank for the horrific deaths and injuries to its citizens.

“My husband and I used to walk right past him often at the recycling center.  We don’t anymore now.  I don’t know what the recycling company will do with that trailer.”  Amy said that during the manhunt for Ward, helicopters were flying over their house frequently. She knew one of the killed because she went to high school with him – Ron Morin.  They were in the same class at Lewiston High School in 1986.  She grew up in Lewiston where she attended public schools.

For twenty-five years, Amy worked in the Emergency Room at St. Mary’s Regional Hospital  But she tired of the “mean” patients and their “nasty” families.  “There is lots of violence in hospitals, expecially since  COVID,” she said.  Several years ago one patient hit her in the face and split a tooth in half.    Hospitals are overwhelmed with behavorial and detox patents and that is a big part of the problem for nurses working at them.  In May, she left her Emergency Room position and “shifted” to a facility where she would be happy with what she is doing.  “My birthday wish yeterday was for the authorities to find Ward. and they did.  That was the first time my birthday wish ever came true. Maybe I should have wished for more,” she said grinning.  A committed RN, Amy said:  “It’s a privilege to help others.”

But it shouldn’t be forgotten that previous to this latest affiliation, Lewiston had become known for its acceptance of Somali refugees into its town.  That began in February of 2001 according to author Cynthia Anderson in an article in The Christian Science Monitor in October 2019.  That’s when refugees relocated to Lewiston from nearby Portland.because they could not afford to live in the city to its south that caters to the wealthy.  By 2003, more than 1,400 Muslims had relocated to Lewiston.  It’s all detailed in an Anderson book:  “Home Now.  How 6,000 Refugees Transformed An American Town.”

“I would never have thought a mass shooting would happen in Maine, in the town I grew up in and that they would find him in the town where I now live,” Amy said.  “This is the new normal.”