OSECOLA COUNTY, Fla. – For the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Heritage Creekside assisted living facility within the Good Samaritan Society in Osceola County began allowing visitors into the long-term care facility this week.
[RELATED: Florida announces it will lift ban on nursing home visits]
The assisted living facility had been closed to visitors since Gov. Ron DeSantis shut down long-term care facilities in an emergency order back in March. The Governor released some of the restrictions of that emergency order, allowing long-term care facilities to begin allowing visitors.
Once they got all the staffing, scheduling, and personal protection equipment in place, the Good Samaritan Society felt comfortable to open its doors.
Paul Waite, drove from Virginia to visit his wife’s stepmother, Marcie Bailey for the first time since January.
“The plan was to visit her every two or three months and we haven’t been able to do that,” Waite said. “Obviously, we miss her.”
He and his wife moved to Virginia last year, with the goal to visit Bailey every two or three months, to make up for the weekly Sunday dinners they had living in Central Florida, which made the shut down all that more difficult. Waite said Bailey has dementia and that makes every single visit precious.
“It certainly seems like the more isolation has created more confusion,” Waite said. “She has just kind of lost touch with local friends and her church.”
He believes she is happy and says she lit up when he saw her today.
“It was fun because I could have called her this morning and told her I was coming and it still would have been a surprise,” he said. “So she did light up when she saw me and we had a good time joking and laughing.”
Though the Governor has allowed for the limited reopening of long-term care facilities to allow for touching, only by the essential caregivers, the Good Samaritan Society is keeping cautious and keeping families socially distant for now.
“We haven’t really started completely opening up to everybody, we are filtering to see how we can manage while we follow those regulations,” said assisted living manager, Gabriel Morales. “We want to maintain the level that we have been able to maintain, being that we haven’t had any cases here, and that’s great.”
But that also means, there were no hugs for today’s reunion.
“No hugs, that’s sad,” Waite said.
Adding Bailey took it with stride and still open her arms wide for an air-hug goodbye.
“When I got up to leave she went, ‘air hug’,” Waite said. “So yeah, we would both love to give hugs but we understand there are circumstances that prevent that right now and we can be okay with that, but we are looking forward to next time.”
Waite is already planning his next visit in November.