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The prescription, which Shaw’s doctor offered to write, read, “You are allowed to hug your granddaughter.” It was just the boost she needed to get back a part of her life she loved so much.
“I was stuck in the land of Covid and having this prescription from my doctor gave me the courage to let it in,” Shaw told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “We were there, standing in my apartment, hugging, hugging, crying and crying for the first time in a year, which was an out-of-body experience.
We chatted with a few lucky grandparents about what it was like when they reunited with their grandchildren. These are their heartwarming stories.
She will remember it for the rest of her life
Evelyn shaw spent the past year without a warm embrace or touching anyone.
The widow lives alone and has missed frequent visits from her granddaughter and daughter Laura Shaw Frank.
When the long-awaited embrace finally came on March 1, Shaw and his 23-year-old granddaughter cried as they kissed each other.
“It was wonderful, and it’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Shaw said. “I want to thank the doctor for writing this prescription.”
Even though the hug was “amazing,” Shaw’s granddaughter, Ateret Frank, said she was nervous even though she had received both her shots.
“Having this prescription in my hand was kind of – it was like a permission to be able to kiss my grandmother and once I did it was natural it felt like a relief and j immediately started to cry, ”Frank said. .
Getting back to things that were once so normal, like giving a loved one a hug, will take time to adjust.
“We’re all going to have to move on from the fear we’ve lived with for so long,” Shaw said.
They got an unexpected hug from behind
As a central North Carolina family greeted each other eagerly across the yard, as they have done all year, a grandmother made an instant decision as she walked away. stood there with her husband. She asked their grandchildren to walk back to her.
“My mom suddenly made an unexpected request,” Deana C. wrote to CNN. “She asked our children to walk back towards them, one at a time, so that she could put her arms around them for a moment and give them a hug. I was so surprised, because we haven’t gotten closer since the start a year. “
Looking across the lawn, Eli, her 11-year-old son, receiving the hug brought her joy, Deana said. Her three children were able to kiss their grandmother in front of their grandfather on March 7.
Deana, 47, said her parents were in an at-risk age group and family members had pre-existing conditions. They diligently took precautions, she added.
“We’ve missed so much over the past year, but the sacrifice of moving away from our loved ones is pale compared to the idea of losing them to Covid-19,” she said.
While it was hard not to kiss and be close to her parents, who only live in a few cities, Deana said it’s sleepovers, family dinners, and just hanging out. being with their grandparents who miss her the most.
“Kids are growing up so fast and grandparents are missing out on their changes and milestones,” she said. “Frequent phone calls, even FaceTime, are a poor substitute for the real presence of loved ones.”
Her parents started to feel more secure once they received both doses of the vaccine and enough time had passed for them to develop immunity, she said.
“I was overwhelmed with joy at the sight of my child and my mother hugging for the first time in over a year,” Deana said. “I wanted to share this moment to shine the light a little bit during a dark time and encourage others to be vigilant.”
They only touched their hands through the glass
For six months, Lanae Paaverud and her husband visited their three grandchildren by standing in front of a glass storm door.
Even as temperatures in Shakopee, Minnesota were dropping below freezing, grandparents came almost every Sunday for their porch tour. “We bought snow pants and warmer jackets to be able to withstand even 15 to 20 minutes (outside),” Paaverud wrote.
They were looking forward to the tender moments of seeing their 13 month old granddaughter, Clara, watching her Bubu and Yogi.
“Since we couldn’t hug or hold the grandchildren, we would put our hands (later our gloved hands), on the glass with each of them,” Paaverud wrote. “We would make little games of them, with peek-a-boo, follow-the-hand, etc. to make him smile and enjoy the interaction.
Last Sunday, the grandparents masked themselves and used disinfectant spray on their clothes so they could see their grandchildren. Paaverud’s children had Covid-19 a few months ago and the family thought they had antibodies. Paaverud, 55, and her husband are not yet eligible to receive their vaccines.
“We helped with the first four to five months of her (Clara’s) life. My daughter was worried that she would not remember her grandparents, ”Paaverud said. “She recognized our voices and our eyes, even though we were wearing masks.”
Bubu and Yogi were able to come face to face with their grandchildren. Their hands touched again as they had done in person.
“It was a beautiful moment,” Paaverud wrote. “I had extended my hands to help her walk (she is learning), and instead she started to touch my hands with her usual sweet curiosity, checking the hands she had only seen. on glass for the past six months.
A granddaughter got the best birthday present ever
Sarah Stevens’ grandmother is one of the people at the center of her life because she helped raise her. She and her grandmother, Caroline, both live in Phoenix.
“My grandmother has always been one of my biggest supporters,” Stevens wrote to CNN. “She helped me raise myself and was my cornerstone after my mother (daughter) passed away a few years ago.”
Stevens said it was difficult to go from seeing your grandmother one afternoon a week to only being able to see her from a distance.
But for his 28th birthday on February 21, Stevens received an invaluable gift.
Stevens was in a clinical trial for one of the vaccines in 2020, so she was already vaccinated. Luckily, her grandmother had full immunity on her birthday.
“It was the first time we went to her house together and hugged,” she said. “It was the best gift I could have received knowing that I could hug her again.”
Their embrace is on the horizon
The Bonta family in Alameda, Calif., Are counting the days until they can kiss their grandmother this weekend.
“We are planning a special dinner for my mother / Lola of my children and her two grandchildren, Iliana and Andres, for this Saturday, the first day my mother is eligible to do so,” wrote Rob Bonta. “I expect there will be big, long hugs at this dinner!”
The state assembly said no one in the family had kissed their mother for over a year. He knows his family is not alone in their sacrifice.
“I know that my family’s experience is not isolated and is probably widely shared by many loving grandparents and their grandchildren, who look forward to these special occasions to reunite,” a- he writes.
The family visited their Lola, a term of affection, outside at a distance with masks for the holidays and milestones such as Christmas, birthdays and Mother’s Day, he said.
Grandmother Cynthia Bonta, 83, brings the children gifts with a mask to show them that she loves and cares about them.
“When I saw that vaccinated grandparents could interact without a mask and indoors with their grandchildren whom they had not seen in over a year, it warmed my heart to think to all the hugs, smiles, laughter and happiness that the grandchildren and grandparents would soon experience together, ”he wrote.
Difficult times are always with us, but hope is on the horizon.
“And even as we endured the storm, we remained hopeful and optimistic, and now, after persevering, we can move from the shadows to the bright light to come,” Bonta said.
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