“Hello my darling,” he says. “Do you know who I am? I am David.”
Before even putting down his suitcases, he sat on Sheila’s bed, next to her armchair, holding her hand – only the second time since the pandemic came to Britain.
The answer of Sheila, his wife of 55 years, is impossible to read. She has advanced dementia and rarely speaks.
“It’s been a long time since I saw you,” he tells her. “It’s because of this Covid thing.”
During the pandemic, Sheila was cut off from everyone who loved her because Britain’s nursing and care homes remained largely closed to visitors. The deployment of the vaccine in the UK has enabled an increasing but significant change. Every resident of England may have one designated indoor visitor.
CNN got permission to observe some of the first moments where people were reunited with loved ones in care.
David gives Sheila daffodils from their garden. He inspects her fingernails to see if they need to be clipped. He tells her that their three sons love and miss her. Often he just stared at her quietly as he stroked her forearm with a glove.
They met when they were both teachers at neighboring schools. Sheila is now 81.
“She was always very sociable,” David recalls. “Outgoing and happy and fulfilled with home and her family.”
David is satisfied that there is no clear decrease in her condition, but says he can not know what she thought and felt during their long time.
Visitors must record a negative Covid-19 test result before entering the home and wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) during the visit. Embracing and kissing is forbidden.
David says just being able to hold hands is a big improvement for Sheila’s quality of life.
“One of the few ways she can show her feelings,” he says. “I think you should be grateful for what you have.”
One town in Bexhill, in one of the many care homes along this part of England’s south coast, Renee Dolan, 86, is anxiously awaiting her granddaughter.
Suddenly Sara Agliata turns the corner and two big smiles lift the room.
“Nan! Ahhh!” cried Sara.
“Oh, thank you darling,” Renee said, receiving a bouquet of flowers. “You had to bring in all this plastic.”
“I know, I know,” Sara laughed. “You can hear me coming.”
Her grandmother held her hand tightly. With the other, she places a kiss on her cheek.
“Oh, you must not kiss me,” Sara said softly.
For the next half hour, their hands remain closed, and a lively conversation flows from great grandchildren to Harry and Meghan’s recent interview.
Sometimes Renee is overwhelmed with emotion and struggles to explain how important this moment is. “It’s so nice to see you. It’s [been] a long time, ‘she said, sobbing.
Her granddaughter assures her, “I’ll be back next week, too.”
Renee’s husband died at 47. She lived alone in central London for decades and now experiences early dementia.
“She is an extremely independent person who loves her family and wants to be around them,” says Sara. “She likes being with people.”
Renee is grateful for the ease of holding hands – “it means everything to me, everything” – but she hopes for more.
“It’s just a pity we can not hug yet,” she says. “But it will not be long, will it?”
Outside Eastbourne’s Manor Hall nursing home, a group of residents slowly but excitedly get on a minibus. This is the first time they have been allowed to leave the building and the small courtyard since last summer.
The excursion begins with a ride through the rolling green hills of South Downs National Park.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this, haven’t we? Nice,” said George Baulch, 87, smiling out the window.
The bus soon stops at a public garden by the sea. The residents are sinking into banks. Their caregivers hand out blankets, cups of tea and snacks.
There are smiles and laughter and many moaning about the early spring cold. Someone is making a juicy joke about the size of a banana. This is the greatest freedom they have experienced in a long time.
“You come here and you realize how big England is,” George says laughing.
Elderly people sacrificed more freedoms than most during the pandemic, and more than half of the deaths from Covid-19 in England and Wales last year were from those over 80. They were featured in the UK’s vaccination from December and the first doses have now been delivered. according to the country’s national health service up to 99.9% of England’s nursing and care homes.
About 23 million people in the UK have now received a first vaccine shot. That protection allows for modest change, the possibility of hope and a glimpse into a post-Covid future.
“We’ve been locked up for weeks and weeks and weeks,” George says. “[I] never thought it was going to happen to us again. And now we are here. ‘
CNN’s Darren Bull and Matt Brealey contributed to this report.