My name is Rachel, and I started Caring by Card to make sure nursing home residents across America feel seen, remembered, and loved.
In 2020, when I saw news coverage of nursing home residents dying alone during COVID—with no visitors allowed—I felt something in my body collapse. My own mother had died after six years in three nursing homes, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at just 57. If she’d been alive during the lockdowns, I wouldn’t have been allowed to hug her. That thought shattered me.
I knew I had to do something. I began asking friends, schools, and strangers online to make handmade cards for isolated elders. The response was overwhelming—people across all 50 states wrote back. They wanted to help. Since then, we’ve sent over 15,000 cards, organized youth choirs and holiday concerts at NYC nursing homes, and hosted corporate card-making events with companies like Target, Papyrus, Ally Bank and MGM Studios. Our volunteers include Girl Scouts, schools, and everyday Americans who want to connect across generations.
Caring by Card is a love letter to the forgotten. It’s also my way of honoring my mother’s legacy—her name, her tenderness, her resilience. What I gain is a sense of purpose, and proof that kindness still matters. I believe lifting others up is what holds this country together. We may come from different places, but compassion is our common ground.
Everyone deserves to feel remembered.
In 2020, when I saw news coverage of nursing home residents dying alone during COVID—with no visitors allowed—I felt something in my body collapse. My own mother had died after six years in three nursing homes, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at just 57. If she’d been alive during the lockdowns, I wouldn’t have been allowed to hug her. That thought shattered me.
I knew I had to do something. I began asking friends, schools, and strangers online to make handmade cards for isolated elders. The response was overwhelming—people across all 50 states wrote back. They wanted to help. Since then, we’ve sent over 15,000 cards, organized youth choirs and holiday concerts at NYC nursing homes, and hosted corporate card-making events with companies like Target, Papyrus, Ally Bank and MGM Studios. Our volunteers include Girl Scouts, schools, and everyday Americans who want to connect across generations.
Caring by Card is a love letter to the forgotten. It’s also my way of honoring my mother’s legacy—her name, her tenderness, her resilience. What I gain is a sense of purpose, and proof that kindness still matters. I believe lifting others up is what holds this country together. We may come from different places, but compassion is our common ground.
Everyone deserves to feel remembered.