A 104-year-old grandmother fought back tears as she pleaded to be allowed to see her family again.
Mary Fowler is a senior lady from Glenrothes, Scotland, who has been unable to see her relatives while staying at the Balfarg Care Home.
With the coronavirus measures in place, Fowler has been prevented from seeing her children and grandchildren ever since March when the lockdown was imposed in care homes.
In a heartbreaking video, the 104-year-old was heard begging to be reunited with her family before her time is over.
“I’m very well looked after here. I want my family though. This is my right. Please help. It’s cutting me to bits,” Fowler said as she fought back tears.
“I must see my kids, time’s getting on for me. I must see my children and make things like they used to be. Please help me. Please, please help.”
Following the senior’s tear-jerking request, Cathie Russell of Care Home Relatives shared the footage on social media saying: “Mary Fowler aged 104 and locked in a care home since lockdown on March is at the end of her tether.”
Following the senior’s pleas, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expressed she feels “heart sorry” for families affected by lockdown but insisted people in care homes have to be “as safe as possible.”
“To Mary, I’m heart sorry for the position you’re in and the position your family’s in. That’s replicated many, many, many times over across the country. But we have to keep people in care homes as safe as possible,” the First Minister said.
“The new guidance is not a panacea and it could never be in the current context. But it is about trying to get back to some sort of normality for people for whom visits are not just visits, they are a key part of their quality of life and care.
“Testing of designated visitors going into care homes, those who regularly go, is one of the priorities of the extension of testing into other asymptomatic groups.”
As Fiona McQueen, the Scottish Chief Nursing Officer, added, making sure that the elderly have company is just “as essential as protecting people from Covid-19.”
“Just being with them, and being with them for an extended period of time, helps them. We know that that is now as essential as protecting people from Covid-19,” she said during the briefing.
“Care home owners are working tirelessly to put the right systems in place to protect the residents and we are working hard.
“We know that testing is part of the solution, part of that equation that balances the life of people so they don’t have Covid with that psychological and emotional wellbeing that we’re seeing as of equal value.”
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