After 70 years of marriage, partners come to rely on each other so much that time spent apart as individuals can feel like trying to function without a vital organ.
Although distance does make the heart grow fonder, footage of an elderly couple being reunited after being forced to spend months apart is proof that sometimes it takes two people to be able to feel whole.
Eighty-nine-year-old Jean Willard moved into a nursing home last year after suffering a nasty fall that broke her pelvis and then receiving a positive dementia diagnosis.
Jean’s 91-year-old husband Walter was extremely sad when his wife moved out of their New York home, but the fact that his wife’s nursing home was only around the corner was comforting.
According to the daughter of the elderly couple, Walter would visit Jean at the home on a daily basis and he would stay with her from morning all the way up until night.
While these daily visits meant the world to both Jean and Walter, unfortunately, they were stopped dead in their tracks due to visitor restrictions that stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The elderly couple’s daughter revealed that the separation affected her parents immensely as feelings of isolation drove Jean to tears while poor Walter suffered a blain breed that required surgery and rehabilitation.
After witnessing the devastating effect that separation was having on her parents, the couple’s daughter, Wendy, began lobbying for her parents to be reunited.
After writing a letter to her mother’s nursing home and expressing fears that she believed her parents would die without being able to see each other again, Wendy immediately received a call from the facility’s director who was happy to arrange a reunion.
Both Jean and Walter were driven to tears by the prospect of being together again, and footage of the amazing moment that they were reunited has millions of people from around the globe reaching for a box of tissues.
This couple has been married for 70 years.
She's 89 years old. He's 91.
Because of the lockdown, they couldn't see each other. They used to cry everyday.
This is the moment they were reunited.
This is what LOVE looks like.#Humanity
(🎥 @Goodable)pic.twitter.com/SuBnBlgZOp
— Muhammad Lila (@MuhammadLila) May 21, 2020
As the elderly couple held hands and gazed into each other’s eyes, Walter’s first words to his beloved wife were “are you okay?”, to which Jean replied, “no, because I miss you.”
The pair then got even closer and pressed their faces up against one another as tears flowed from both Jean and Walter followed by a series of kisses.
Jean and Walter then continued to exchange pleasantries before thanking their children and signing off with one prolific statement.
“After 70 years, we’re together again. As we should be,” said Walter.
The pair are now sharing the same room at the nursing home and are once again, inseparable.
