Daughters can finally hold mum’s hand again
Maureen Harvey was reunited with her daughter Karen Wells on Mother’s Day after a year of fearing they wouldn’t meet properly again.
They last saw each other for a 30-minute visit on Christmas Eve. Before that, it was February last year when Mrs Harvey, 81, moved into Dalemead Care Home in Twickenham, south-west London.
Finally, on Sunday, they were granted an indoor visit. Mrs Wells, 60, said: ‘It’s been very emotional. It was a nightmare, constantly living in fear and worry that we may not get to see her again.’
She said her mother’s dementia means she does not fully understand Covid and her mental state has ‘dramatically deteriorated’ in lockdown.
Maureen Harvey was reunited with her daughter Karen Wells on Mother’s Day after a year of fearing they wouldn’t meet properly again
‘Mum would cry every time we called and ask “why can’t you come to see me, why?” – it was unbearable,’ she added. At the Dawson Lodge home in Southampton, Lou Blow was reunited with her daughter Jennie Church in time for her 95th birthday.
Restricted to window visits, they had gone more than a year without being able to hold hands.
Mrs Blow said: ‘It was so lovely to be able to hold hands and have a face-to-face conversation. It filled my heart with so much joy.’
Mrs Church, 67, said: ‘As soon as she heard my voice, the staff said they could see her getting excited.’
At the Dawson Lodge home in Southampton, Lou Blow was reunited with her daughter Jennie Church in time for her 95th birthday
Inhumane to keep us apart after 60 years
Raymond Frost, 80, who suffers from Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia, has lived at the Beeston View home in Cheshire for over two years. His wife Lyn, 77, was only able to visit him in a designated room and speak from behind a screen on their diamond wedding anniversary this month
A great-grandmother who was unable to hold her husband’s hand on their 60th wedding anniversary has hit out at ‘inhumane’ care home visiting rules.
Raymond Frost, 80, who suffers from Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia, has lived at the Beeston View home in Cheshire for over two years.
His wife Lyn, 77, was only able to visit him in a designated room and speak from behind a screen on their diamond wedding anniversary this month.
She said: ‘There was no holding hands, nothing. We weren’t allowed to touch. I just cried.
‘I’m feeling so angry. I missed his 80th birthday…and I was only granted 30 minutes in a socially-distanced pod for our anniversary.’ Mrs Frost added: ‘It’s an inhumane system.’
Care giant Barchester said: ‘The team at Beeston View has been working around the clock to get the necessary systems in place for all visitors.’
I’m a mother, not a ‘viral vector’
Ruth Adams’s son Sam is dying – but she still can’t hold his hand.
She hoped she would be able to touch him for the first time in months thanks to the new guidance.
But last week when she went to visit Sam, 34, who has Huntington’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder, she was made to sit eight feet away from him behind a Perspex screen at his home in East Sussex. Mrs Adams, 67, said: ‘I’ve watched Sam being hugged and kissed by carers, but I am sat there as his mother not able to get near him. We are seen as pariahs.
‘I am seen as a viral vector, not as a mother whose son is dying. I wasn’t even allowed to see him through a window for months.
‘I don’t just want to be able to hold his hand when he is dying, I want to give him a quality of life in his last year.’
Ruth Adams’s son Sam is dying – but she still can’t hold his hand. She hoped she would be able to touch him for the first time in months thanks to the new guidance. But last week when she went to visit Sam, 34, who has Huntington’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder, she was made to sit eight feet away from him behind a Perspex screen at his home in East Sussex
Stress gave me strokes
Peter Williamson, 87, was left crushed when the home where his wife of 61 years Valerie lives told him indoor visits were too high risk.
He believes the stress of separation has caused him to suffer two strokes.
The couple have only seen each other with a glass screen between them since she moved into the home nine months ago. Mr Williamson, from Trafford, Greater Manchester, said: ‘She finds it deeply upsetting. She thinks I don’t want to come and see her.’
Peter Williamson, 87, was left crushed when the home where his wife of 61 years Valerie lives told him indoor visits were too high risk