Doors Open Once Again To Reunite Families

Green-fingered care home resident Bettie, 96, says she is “overjoyed” after receiving family visits following many months of lockdown.

With the recent relaxing of lockdown restrictions, perhaps nobody is looking forward to resuming contact with loves ones more than thousands of care home residents up and down the country.

Many older people been locked down in their homes and shielding for many months before, meaning that social contact has been extremely limited over the past year. The mental health repercussions of being cut off from their family and friends has been devastating for some.

However, the benefits of reconnecting again are just as clear. At Abbeyfield House in Bramhall, resident Bettie Lovell, 96, has recently been able to hold hands with her daughter Pamela after many months apart.

As a mother of four, with nine grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren, Bettie says the separation from her family has been “terrible”.

“I have missed them so much,” she said. “We’ve been talking on the phone and video-calls but it’s not the same.

“I’m overjoyed that Pamela is able to come and visit me again, and hopefully my other children, who live further away, will be able to make the trip soon, since we are now allowed more than one visitor.”

Bettie has also been a keen fundraiser all her life. Starting off raising funds for the blind from a young age, her achievements since have included raising the funds to establish a bowls club on the South Coast, which she secured through fundraising events and local media campaigning, and helping to set up a school for disabled children in South Africa.

“I’m eager to explore the local community in Bramhall when lockdown is over,” she said, “and I look forward to seeing which charitable organisations could benefit from my help and experience.”