PHOTO ESSAY: A FAMILY REUNITES AFTER COVID LOCKDOWN — Marquee | Film & Video Production

Photos and Interview by Scott Perry.

Every week, Kathleen and Syd (who have asked to keep their last names private) would visit their mother/grandmother, Gwendolyn, at the local nursing home where she’s lived since 2016. Then Covid hit, and nursing homes became ground zero. A recent government study indicates that more than 40 percent of Medicare beneficiaries in nursing homes have had or likely had COVID-19. For Black, Hispanic and Asian beneficiaries, that number rises to about half. In March, The Atlantic’s Covid Tracking Project reported that nearly one in 10 nursing home residents in the U.S. had died of COVID-19. Today, as the Delta variant spreads across Kentucky, medical experts are urging people to get vaccinated.

In response to outbreaks, nursing homes went into lockdown. Family members like Kathleen and Syd could only visit their loved ones at shut windows. More than half of nursing home residents, including Gwendolyn, have cognitive impairments like dementia, and the isolation made it difficult for their families to keep them engaged.

As vaccines became widely available, nursing homes slowly eased restrictions, and in late March, after about a year of no physical contact with Gwendolyn, Kathleen and Syd could finally visit her in person — without a pane of glass between them. Photographer Scotty Perry documented their emotional reunion and interviewed them about the experience. The following are excerpts from their conversation, edited for length and clarity.

“The window visits had to have the window closed, then you could wave to your family. But because of Granny’s dementia, we found that we could call her on the phone and see her through the window, but she wasn’t really understanding what was happening. She would talk to us on the phone but say that she’s seeing people outside that looked like us, or that she was waving to people outside but didn’t really recognize or comprehend that it was us.” —Syd

“At one point we brought her a singing telegram from Carly Johnson. Anything just to kind of brighten it for her. We came in singing Christmas music.” —Syd

“This is sad. It’s making me sad talking about this.” —Kathleen

“It is sad. But we got through it.” —Syd

“Carly sang ‘My Old Kentucky Home,’ and Mom knew some of the words. We would put the DVDs of Mary Poppins on and would sing ‘I Love to Laugh’ and ‘Spoonful of Sugar.’ We will sing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ from George M. Cohan.… We sang ‘This Is My Country’ and patriotic songs, World War II songs. Growing up, Mom would talk about being in musicals and playing the piano.” —Kathleen

“It’s one of those things with dementia or Alzheimer’s that can actually bring them back to themselves. And if there’s certain things that they remember it’s — to my mom’s point, it’s crazy that she can’t remember five minutes ago, but when we start to sing these songs, she’s able to recall the lyrics, which is pretty special and helps us still kind of continue that connection with her and know that it’s still our granny, like how she used to be.” —Syd

“It was wild touching her for the first time. I don’t even think I was even in hugging mode, and I wasn’t even able to hug my mom. Granny was probably one of the first hugs other than my husband that I’ve had in 12 months. So it was powerful. Very powerful.” —Syd

“We’ll let her eat and smile, especially when we’re singing songs and stuff, but for the most part, we prefer to wear masks just out of precaution. Also, a lot of people are not vaccinated. One of our favorite CNAs we know is not vaccinated, and they are with Granny all the time. So, you know, that’s a little scary. But it’s the choice they make, and they’ve taken such good care of her. We can’t really push back on it.” —Syd

“My granny has said ‘I love your guts’ for as long as I remember. I used to live in Colorado. I was, I think, from 8 to 14, and Granny would send us letters … and she would always, always, always sign it, ‘I love your guts!’ on all of the cousins’ Christmas cards, birthday cards. And I have absolutely no idea where it came from. It is very authentic to my Granny. I ended up getting a tattoo on the front of my leg. I have a Valkyrie with braided hair like my mom and Granny used to do, with a long braid and a ribbon — like the old traditional tattoo ribbon that says, ‘I love your guts,’ because we love it so much. And the other cute thing about ‘I love your guts’ is that it’s spreading in the facility. The activities personnel will call me, and they’ll say, ‘I know I’ve made it.’ We were like, ‘What are you talking about?’ And they’ll say, ‘I walked out of your Granny’s room today and she told me that she loves my guts!’” —Syd

“I personally am just grateful. It was challenging and it was awful. Definitely had ups and downs, but I’m grateful for the people, the frontline workers that put themselves and put their families at risk to take care of my family and showed up and showed up.” —Syd