TORONTO -- Holiday cheer is desperately needed at many long-term care homes ravaged by COVID-19, with the grief of losing neighbours made worse by being separated from family this season.
Families and workers tried to keep spirits up on Christmas Day even though residents couldn’t gather with their loved ones the way they usually would.
“It's pretty heartbreaking,” Felicia Leone told CTV News outside of a care home. She was there to wave to her grandmother, Antonietta, through the window.
“Because she’s been alone so long, I think she doesn't understand why we can't come in and visit her.”
Antonietta is 97 years old. She beat COVID-19 back in April, surviving what a government report concluded was organizational negligence. Dozens in her care home died.
“I didn't think she was going to make it,” Patrizia Di Biase, Antonietta’s daughter, told CTV News. “She looked absolutely horrible, but she keeps on picking up, every time something happens, she comes back and she keeps on going.”
On Christmas, family members stopped by to try and spend some time with Antonietta, even though they had to stay outside of the building.
“It’s hard not to be able to hug her, but this is the best we can do, and at least we still have her with us,” Leone said.
Wearing a bright red Santa hat, Di Biase stood on the sidewalk outside of Antonietta’s room and had a quick cell phone conversation to wish her mother a Merry Christmas, and let her know that she had sent some food the family traditionally eats at Christmas into the residence for her to enjoy.
Antonietta wants to make it to 100 years old, she told CTV News.
Weighing visits with safety is a concern that many families have, especially during the holidays.
There is nothing Lorrie Martin wants more than to spend time with her 78-year-old mother, who lives in another long-term care home.
Martin said every visit is a difficult decision.
“My daughter is at home with a heart condition,” she told CTVNews.ca “I don't want to bring [COVID-19] home, I don't want to bring it in, I'm really stuck between a rock and a hard place right now because I'm in the middle of my mom, my daughter; my past, my future.”
While workers know nothing will be the same as a holiday surrounded by loved ones, everyone from nurses to orderlies are doing their best to make residents smile and feel at home.
Activity staff at Wales Home, a Quebec residence, don’t usually work on Christmas Day, but after an especially difficult year, staff came in to lead a special round of bingo in order to lift residents’ spirits.
Brendalee Piironen, executive director of Wales Home, told CTV News they were “hoping that it brings a bit of normalcy.”
They want residents to know “that life is going to go on,” Piironen said. “2021 is right around the corner.”
Since the vaccine was rolled out in Quebec 11 days ago, more than 11,000 seniors and healthcare workers have already received their shots -- one step closer to the day when families can visit their loved ones in care homes without fear.
