The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a monkey wrench into everyone’s life in one way or another. For those with loved ones in nursing homes, these challenges have been especially painful.
Most care facilities were forced to close their doors to outside visitors in mid-March. That meant Mary Daniel of Jacksonville, Florida, could not continue her nightly ritual of visiting her husband Steve for an indefinite amount of time.
Steve has early-onset Alzheimer’s, so he’s been living at Rosecastle at Deerwood, a retirement and assisted living community, for about a year now. He was enjoying his time there, but when Mary stopped being able to come by, his happiness began to decline.
Mary appealed to both the facility and her state government to find a way to visit him. She also petitioned the local news to ask for more lenience in visitation rights for vulnerable patients — and started a Facebook group for caregivers in similar positions.
She was terrified that Steve would forget her as his Alzheimer’s advanced, and window visits were too painful for them.
Just when she had given up hope, she received a call from Rosecastle’s corporate office. They said they were looking for a new dishwasher… and as a member of the staff, Mary would have access to the patients. She lept at the chance and took the job on the spot!
On July 3rd, after almost four months apart, Mary and Steve were finally reunited!