A couple's last moment together as coronavirus deaths in Scotland's care homes increase
Care homes are the new epicentre for Scotland’s fight with coronavirus.
While deaths are slowing elsewhere, in care homes, the number is still sharply rising.
Over the last week, Scottish care homes had more Covid-19 deaths than hospitals.
That’s the first time that’s been seen anywhere in the UK since the beginning of this pandemic.
This week, I met Sally Powell.
Her husband, Jim, has been in the Caledonia Care Home in Ayrshire for the last four years being supported through life with dementia.
Last Tuesday, Jim was diagnosed with coronavirus.
At the start of this week, Sally received the call to say the care home was putting her husband into palliative care.
Sally's instinct was to go and hold her husband’s hand.
She wanted so much to be with him - for neither of them to be alone.
However, the rules of lockdown in care homes mean visitors are only allowed when death is imminent.
The closest Sally could get was looking up at the top floor window to Jim’s bedroom in the home. That’s where we met - in the care home garden - and where Sally told me about Jim’s life.
A Geordie with a twisted sense of humour. They had been together for 30 years.
I asked Sally why Jim wasn’t being taken to hospital at this stage and she explained the care home could provide the kind of love a hospital just doesn’t have time for right now.
“The carers in there know how many sugars Jim takes in his tea,” she told me.
“That might seem insignificant but when I am trusting others to look after my husband that’s the kind of attention that makes all the difference.
“It can also be incredibly distressing to move someone with dementia.
"It isn’t just a care home by name - it is Jim’s home now and it’s where he gets the best care.
"The staff in here - everyone from the nurses to the cleaners and the admin staff - they are all angels.
"They don’t have the resources of hospitals, or the same recognition, but that’s wrong.
"I want that to change.
"I want people to see what their kind of care means to me at this stage in my husband’s life.”
While we were talking, one of Jim’s nurses asked Sally if she wanted to come upstairs.
Sally had to put full protective equipment on - the coronavirus is still highly contagious. But it was worth it. Sally and Jim had a brief, precious moment.
Just a few hours later, Jim passed away. He was 74.
What I witnessed over the course of an evening with Sally was incredible strength in the most difficult of circumstances. And her admiration for the care staff in Caledonia Care Home.
The statistics are frightening.
Half of Scotland’s care homes now have the virus inside them.
While deaths counted by the thousand allow us to measure the scale of this pandemic, it is the death of one - somebody’s one - that allows us to see the pain of loss.
And when we see this loss with our own eyes, it gives some understanding about what is happening in every care home now besieged by coronavirus.
If you or someone you know needs Alzheimer's information and advice you can contact the following:
Call Alzheimer Scotland's 24 hour Freephone Dementia Helpline on 0808 808 3000
Or the Alzheimers Society UK-wide on 0333 150 3456