Tears as elderly married couple hug in care home for the first time

The couple had been living separately for months

In what has been a difficult year for care homes, one facility has brought a huge amount of joy to one couple as they were able to reunite the married pair who had been living separately for months.

Baily House Care Home in Mansfield was able to reunite Mary and Gordon who were able to hug each other for the first time since they were separated.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Mary had been living at home while her husband, Gordon, was in a care home. Mary then moved into Baily House Care Home - a different facility to Gordon’s.

In a big surprise for Mary, Gordon had been moved into the same care home and husband and wife were reunited in a joyous moment that was captured on camera.

The footage was posted on Baily House Care Home’s Facebook page and has been liked over 75,000 times with thousands of additional comments.

The caption reads: “Our lovely Mary has had a real surprise today... her beloved husband Gordon has come to live here at Baily House with her, after not seeing each other for several months, it was certainly a very emotional reunion.

“Mary can now join Gordon as he isolates in his new room.”

The emotional moment is made even more poignant when Mary realised she was allowed to hug her husband, after asking the nurses, “We can’t touch each other, can we?”

The pair both set aside their walking aids and rushed to embrace one another and share a kiss.

Restrictions on care home visits were relaxed on 12 April, as the government’s road map out of lockdown sees changes made to guidance.

Care home residents are now permitted to have two regular visitors, instead of one nominated person. Children are also allowed to visit and are not counted as one of the two.