Elderly Couple, Married 60 Years, Emotionally Reunites After Months-Long COVID Separation

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A Florida married couple of 60 years was reunited after spending 215 days apart due to coronavirus restrictions.

The moment: Footage posted to the Facebook page of Rosecastle at Delaney Creek assisted living home on Oct. 15 shows 80-year-old residents Joseph and Eve Loreth of Brandon, Florida, meeting for the first time since March.

Joseph Loreth had been in a rehabilitation center after having his left leg amputated due to an infection, and his wife, who suffers from dementia, was unable to visit because of restrictions on visitors at long-term care facilities.

  • During their seven-month separation, the couple spoke by phone as often as three times a day and occasionally “visited” through windows.

The Facebook video shows a staff member pushing Joseph on a wheelchair and surprising Eve at a common room table in the assisted living home.

  • “Oh my God. I sure did miss you,” says Eve Loreth, standing to hug her husband. “I love you.”
  • “I didn’t think I would ever get over here. I missed you so much,” Joseph Loreth replies.

The couple met at a roller skating rink at age 16, and, according to him, “she hasn’t stopped chasing me since.”

Their recorded reunion has gone viral, getting 4,000 shares on Facebook and attracting coverage from multiple news outlets.

Locked down: Early in the coronavirus pandemic, states imposed strict restrictions on nursing homes and long-term care facilities to prevent spread to vulnerable populations, but the personal toll was high.

  • “We’re hearing from a number of family members and [long-term care] ombudsmen that many residents are just losing the will to live,” Robyn Grant, the director of public policy and advocacy for the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, told AARP Magazine last month.
  • Most states have since allowed some form of visitation at elderly care facilities.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sept. 1 issued an executive order ending the state’s lockdown and allowing such facilities to reopen for visitors who comply with personal protective equipment and COVID-19 screening requirements.

  • “It weighs on me to think of people who passed away not just from COVID, but from natural causes, without being able to say a goodbye. We had to do something,” DeSantis said at a press conference announcing the order.
By We'll Do It Live