Thread by @DebbieDoesTwitt

I have a story I want to share but I won't do it justice, so I'm hoping I at least get the feelings of today across.
We have a patient staying with us named "Leona". She's 95 years old. She was born in Rome, Italy. She never went to school because her Mom died young and 1/

2/ Leona had to raise her siblings.
She's a widow who has a large very close family of all her nieces, nephews and all their children and their children and grandchildren.
Like most families who have family in LTC facilities, Leona's family us having a hard time not being able

3/ visit. So is Leona. Her family flies in when they can & they visit through a closed window with everybody keeping their masks on. I wish I could explain how hard these visits are, for all our patients & families. Not being able to actually "see" each other or hug or just touch

4/ But her family still fly in to spend those few minutes standing in the snow so they can touch their hands with the window between them. They bring all the kids and new babies because even though Leona lives with us she is a huge member of her family.
Her neice dropped off a

5/ fb portal plus for Leona about 2 months ago.
Leona HATED it. Our activities director (Jenny) helped her set it up and call her neice. She still hated it. She kept saying talking on the phone was fine. Jenny told her she would setup appointments with her neice and she would do

6/ all the work and Leona would just need to do the visiting but Leona refused (politely but firmly:).
Every so often Jenny and the neice would bring up the Portal and Leona would just say "No, the phone is fine". At one point Leona told Jenny having the portal sitting in her

7/ was giving her anxiety and had her take it out.
Leona's neice donated the portal to the facility stating she hoped our other residents would be able to see their families.
Every so often Jenny & her neice still brought it up but Leona was still refusing "to use that big thing"

8/ Finally, we get to today....
Jenny had set the portal up in our office for others to use.
Today....today was amazing!
Jenny wheeled in Leona and started dialing the portal
We were afraid to move. We were all holding our breath!
Jenny dialed...
Her neice, her husband and

9/ their kids picked up! And everyone started to scream and cry. Everyone. Leona, her family and all of us.
It was amazing! And when Jenny told Leona she could take her mask off they all screamed and cried again! Taking her mask off- It was such a small thing that was so huge

10/ They could actually, finally, really see each other.
This phone call that I had nothing to do with and was only witnessing was one of the most amazing moments in my life.
They cried such happy giddy tears. They visited, all talking at once, they showed her their new house,

11/ they caught her up on all the big and little family news.
And then they started calling other houses full of family to join in!
It was just amazing.
Leona was giddy and crying just happy tears the whole 45 minutes.
Her family was the same. And so were the 2 of us.
It was

12/ just beautiful. 45 minutes of pure love and joy.
It was beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.
I cannot hope to express how much it meant to Leona and her family or how thankful we were to be even a little part of it.
To witness just pure love and joy was a blessing and

I will never forget today.
When Jenny ended the call for her the first thing Leona said was, "next time lets make sure my mask is off before they pick up"
❤
Please please please #WearAMask so this can finally end and all the people in facilities can hug their loved ones