‘I Want to Be With Her.’ When Covid Closed Nursing Homes, One Husband Moved In
COVID-19 has produced many caregiving heroes. This love story is heartwarming and inspirational.When nursing homes began barring visitors to keep the coronavirus out, Jack Eccles decided to move in. He didn’t want to leave his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, on her own.Hillcrest Convalescent Center in Durham, N.C., had turned him away on March 12 when he arrived, as usual, to spend much of the day with his wife, Gerry, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.So he returned the next day with a suitcase of clothes, books, medications, and his computer. Hillcrest had agreed to rent him a single room in its assisted-living area so that he could care for Gerry, who is 91.Hillcrest sometimes feels like a prison, he says, but he won’t move out and leave Gerry until it reopens to visitors.“We’re married. I want to be with her. She took care of me for 70 years, and now it’s my turn,” he says.Though their children were nervous about the risk, they agreed with their father’s decision, one that nursing homes hardly ever encounter.Read more here from the WSJ: https://bit.ly/3jwRWnD