The prescription, which Frank had his grandmother’s doctor write, said, “You are allowed to hug your granddaughter.” It was just the nudge that Shaw needed to regain a part of her life that she loved so much.
“I was stuck in Covid land and having this prescription from my doctor gave me the courage to let it in,” said Shaw to Brianna Keilar of CNN. “There we were, standing in my apartment just hugging and hugging and crying and crying for the first time in a year, which was an out-of-body experience. It was a blessing.”
We talked to some lucky grandparents about what it was like when they got together with their grandchildren. These are his touching stories.
She will remember this for the rest of her life
Evelyn Shaw the past year has passed without a warm hug or touching anyone.
The widow lives alone and misses the frequent visits of her granddaughter and daughter Laura Shaw Frank.
When the long-awaited hug finally took place on March 1, Shaw and his 23-year-old granddaughter cried as they hugged.
“It was wonderful and something I will remember for the rest of my life,” said Shaw. “I want to thank the doctor for writing this prescription.”
Although the hug was “incredible”, Shaw’s granddaughter, Ateret Frank, said she was nervous, even though she had received both vaccines.
“Having that prescription in my hand, it sort of – it felt like permission to be able to hug my grandmother and after I did that, I felt natural, felt like a relief and immediately started crying,” said Frank.
Going back to things that were once so normal, like hugging a loved one, will take some time to adjust.
“We are all going to need to transition from the fear we have lived with for so long,” said Shaw.
They received an unexpected hug from behind
As a family in central North Carolina waved eagerly at each other across the yard, just as they did throughout the year, a grandmother made a sudden decision while there with her husband. She asked her grandchildren to walk backwards towards her.
“My mom suddenly made an unexpected request,” Deana C. wrote to CNN. “She asked our children to walk with their backs to them, one at a time, so that she could put her arms around them for a moment and hug them. I was very surprised, because we were nowhere close to each other. for over a year. “
Looking across the lawn at her 11-year-old son, Eli, receiving the hug, brought her joy, said Deana. All three of her children were able to hug their grandmother while their grandfather watched on March 7th.
Deana, 47, said that her parents are at an age at risk and that there are family members with pre-existing illnesses. They took precautions diligently, she added.
“We lost a lot in the past year, but the sacrifice of distancing ourselves from our loved ones pales in comparison to the idea of losing them to Covid-19,” she said.
Although it is difficult not to hug and stay close to her parents, who live only a few cities down the road, Deana said it is pajama parties, family dinners and just being with her grandparents that her children miss most.
“Children are growing up very quickly and grandparents are missing out on their changes and milestones,” she said. “Frequent phone calls, even FaceTime, are a terrible substitute for the real presence of loved ones.”
Her parents started to feel safer as soon as they received two doses of the vaccine and it was long enough for them to build immunity, she said.
“I was delighted to see my son and mother hugging for the first time in over a year,” said Deana. “I wanted to share this moment to shine a little light during a dark time and to encourage others to remain vigilant.”
They just touched their hands through the glass
For six months, Lanae Paaverud and her husband visited their three grandchildren standing outside a glass door against rain.
Even though the temperatures in Shakopee, Minnesota, dropped below freezing, the grandparents came almost every Sunday to visit the porch. “We bought snow pants and warmer jackets so that we could last up to 15-20 minutes (outside),” wrote Paaverud.
They looked forward to the tender moments of seeing their 13-month-old granddaughter Clara look at her Bubu and her Yogi.
“As we could not hug or hold our grandchildren, we placed our hands (later our gloved hands) on the glass with each one,” wrote Paaverud. “We would play games like that, like hide and seek, follow-the-hand, etc. to make her smile and enjoy the interaction.”
Last Sunday, the grandparents made a double mask and used a disinfectant spray on their clothes to be able to see their grandchildren. Paaverud’s children had Covid-19 a few months ago and the family found that they had antibodies. Paaverud, 55, and her husband are not yet eligible to receive the vaccines.
“We helped in the first four to five months of her life (Clara). My daughter was afraid she wouldn’t remember her grandparents, ”said Paaverud. “She recognized our voices and our eyes, even though we were wearing masks.”
Bubu and Yogi came face to face with their grandchildren. Their hands touched again as they had done in person.
“It was a beautiful moment,” wrote Paaverud. “I put my hands up to help her walk (she is just learning), and instead she started to touch my hands with her usual mild curiosity, checking the hands that she had only seen on the glass in the past six months.”
A granddaughter got the best birthday present ever
Sarah Stevens’ grandmother is among the people at the center of her life, as she helped raise her. She and her grandmother, Caroline, live in Phoenix.
“My grandmother has always been one of my biggest supporters,” Stevens wrote to CNN. “She helped raise me and was my rock after my mother (her daughter) passed away a few years ago.”
Stevens said it was difficult to stop seeing his grandmother one afternoon a week and start seeing her only from a distance.
But for his 28th birthday on February 21, Stevens won an invaluable gift.
Stevens was part of a clinical trial for one of the vaccines in 2020, so she was already vaccinated. Luckily, her grandmother had full immunity until her birthday.
“It was our first time together at your home and hugging,” she said. “It was the best gift I could have received knowing that I could safely hold you again.”
Their embrace is on the horizon
The Bonta family from Alameda, California, is counting down the days until they manage to hug their grandmother this weekend.
“We are planning a special dinner for my mother / daughter Lola and her two grandchildren, Iliana and Andres, for this Saturday, the first day my mother can do this,” wrote Rob Bonta. “I hope there are some big, long hugs at this dinner!”
The state deputy said that no one in the family has embraced his mother for more than a year. He knows that his family is not alone in his 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 be together,” he wrote.
The family visited Lola, a term of affection, outdoors at a distance with masks for the holidays and anniversaries such as Christmas, birthdays and Mother’s Day, he said.
Grandmother Cynthia Bonta, 83, brings gifts for the children with a mask to show that she loves and thinks about them.
“When I saw that vaccinated grandparents can interact without a mask and indoors with their grandchildren that they haven’t seen in over a year, it warmed my heart to think of all the hugs, smiles, laughter and happiness that grandchildren and grandparents would be soon together “, he wrote.
The difficult times are still with us, but hope is on the horizon.
“And even as we endured the storm, we remain hopeful and optimistic and now, having persevered, we can step out of the shadows and into the bright light ahead,” said Bonta.