A mother and daughter have been reunited indoors after three gruelling months of separation, as care homes across Scotland begin to welcome visitors once again.
Fiona Scott said she hoped her reunion with her 90-year-old mother Mary Cook marked the start of "more hugs for many, many people” - as the easing of Covid restrictions means more relatives can meet with their loved ones inside the homes.
From today, residents are allowed to have two designated visitors, with each visitor able to see their relative once a week.
Ms Scott was at Queen’s House in Kelso, in the Scottish Borders where she met with the grandmother-of-four indoors Mary for the first time in three months.
READ MORE: Great-grandmother, 100, finally reunited with family after begging to be released from care home
She said: “It’s hard to put into words, you don’t feel as separate. It’s just normal isn’t it?
“I just feel very sorry for all the folks that cannot get together like this.”
Ms Scott added: “The touch and feel, it can speak a volume of words.
“A hug’s a gesture that you can’t put into words but it conveys so much to the person.
“Let’s hope that this is the start of more hugs for many, many people.”
Steven Bailey, concierge at the care home, said: “The difference is amazing – to see Mary and Fiona today, it’s just the best feeling in the world.
“It reminds me of all the reasons why I do this job.
“I think it will be very overwhelming for everybody – including the staff.
“It’s been a long time coming.”
READ MORE: 'Broken-hearted' care home relatives demand human rights for residents in new campaign
Recent data revealed that care home coronavirus deaths had fallen by 62 per cent in the last three weeks, with the figure cited by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as the first “hard evidence” of the vaccine’s impact.
The Scottish Government said that with the extra protection in place, the greater risk to residents’ wellbeing is from a lack of family contact.
Visitors will be “strongly recommended” to take a coronavirus test on-site and will have to wear PPE.
Cathie Russell, who has been campaigning with the Care Home Relatives Scotland group, said: “We look forward to working with care home providers, public health and oversight teams to ensure that the new guidance allows residents to enjoy meaningful contact with their closest relatives and friends once more.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here