While COVID-19 has caused a great deal of adversity for people all over the world, elderly people who live alone have been hit especially hard when it comes to both their mental and physical health.
One grandma recently received her final dose of the vaccine and after voicing some concerns about visiting with her family, she was prescribed perhaps the second most important treatment she’s been needing: a hug.
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This heartwarming story illustrates the beauty and power of human connection.
This grandma went an entire year without a hug.
The power of physical touch has been appreciated in a new way for those that have been without it during the pandemic. For Brooklyn, New York native, Evelyn Shaw, it had been an entire year since she’d been hugged when she went to get her COVID-19 vaccine.
As Insider reported, she had been careful to abide by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) distancing advisories, which meant no hugging her beloved family.
Her family missed her dearly.
At 81 years old, Shaw is blessed with a loving family, including a daughter and granddaughter who were both eager to finally be more less 6 feet away from her.
However, even after receiving both doses of the COVID vaccine, Shaw was still nervous about getting close to anyone. So, her doctor did the most compassionate thing they could think of and wrote Shaw a special prescription to go get a hug from her granddaughter ASAP.
It was a moment that has since made everyone’s heart melt.
Evelyn’s daughter, Jessica Shaw, who works as a SiriusXM radio host, posted the now-viral clip of her mother getting an emotional hug after a year without one.
The video is of grandma Shaw hugging her granddaughter, Ateret, as she breaks into tears and trembles, overcome with emotion. It’s truly a moment of both celebration and sadness as viewers can see the waves of relief coming from Shaw.
The video went viral.
That clip of Shaw hugging her granddaughter, along with the personalized and heartfelt prescription her doctor wrote for the hug, has people feeling truly touched by this story. Almost instantly after being posted, the Tweet already had 50,000 likes, and it’s only continued to climb.
Someone even wrote, “You made me cry, I was not supposed to cry today. My mom and I had our first shot 2 weeks ago (she [because] of age, and I am in the medical field), we have our second next week. My father passed away 9 days ago, we did a hug non hug attempt, can wait for a real one!”
Let us know what you think of this touching story in the comments and if you have a similar pandemic story.
h/t: Insider
