A 104-year woman locked down in a care home for months has gone viral after filming a message begging to see her family again.
In a video shared on the Care Home Relatives Scotland group on Facebook, Mary Fowler says she is “very well looked after” at the Balfarg Care Home in Glenrothes, Scotland, but adds: “I want my family, though.”
“This is my right. Please help. It’s cutting me to bits,” says the smartly dressed woman.
“I must see my kids. Time’s getting on for me. I must see my children and make things like they used to be. Please help me, help me. Please, please help.”
Mrs Fowler has so far “only been able to have brief window visits from one of her children,” according to the Evening Express.
Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister in Scotland’s left-separatist devolved executive, roughly equivalent to a U.S. state government, told journalists: “To Mary, I’m heart sorry for the position you’re in and the position your family’s in.” Ms Sturgeon admitted that it has been “replicated many, many, many times over across the country” — but added woodenly that “we have to keep people in care homes as safe as possible”.
Care Home Relatives Scotland has been pleading with the Scottish executive to grant relatives “essential caregiver” status and access to regular coronavirus testing to facilitate visits.
Visits are severely curtailed by rules requiring the homes to observe onerous restrictions, including testing of staff on a weekly basis and an approved risk assessment to allow them.
Many are opting to simply retain the near-blanket ban on anything but brief outdoor visits rather than try to meet the stringent requirements — which are a sharp contrast to the state’s previous, arguably negligent stance on the health of care home residents amid the pandemic.
Sadly, Mrs Fowler’s video message pleading for help alleviating the isolation of lockdown is not her first, with her saying back in September that she felt like she was in “a prison”.
“We’re shut down, we can’t see our family and I think when you’re my age, you deserve to see your family,” she had said.
“It’s all you want, is the happy faces round about you… There must be loads of others like me, wanting to see their bairns at the end of their life.
“I’ve got good carers and staff is really good here, the food is good – everything, but this is what you want, your bairns round about you when you’re auld,” she explained in her rich Scottish accent.