GREEN VALLEY, Ariz. — For several months some of our community’s most vulnerable have been away from loved ones, but with more and more people getting vaccinated they're slowly but surely getting back to normal.
Inside of Prestige Assisted Living in Green Valley, residents are getting out of their rooms and are enjoying one another.
“With the vaccination out and everybody participating in that, it's a new hope,” said Julie Hansen, community director.
Hansen said all of their residents are fully vaccinated and have allowed visitations to return.
“We are asking for an appointment time just so that we can follow social distancing and we don't have too many folks in at one time, but everybody has been very happy. Also if the family member has been fully vaccinated and the resident is fully vaccinated, they're actually able to hug and hold hands now, which is really sweet,” said Hansen.
Visitations are something Lois Hlady and her son John are taking advantage of.
“It’s definitely exciting and totally different to see them in person rather than outside or on zoom call or through a window,” said John Hlady.
With safety measures in place and vaccines complete, they are able to go through photos and catch up.
But it took several months of sacrificing to get where they are today.
“It was difficult a the beginning even with the Zoom calls we tried to do. It was difficult just because of the technology and things like that,” said Hlady.
Getting to this point was a challenge for the staff too.
“We would take it upon ourselves to go ahead and you know get that list and run out and grab whatever it was that they needed. You know we become an extension of all of our residents as extra family members. Families really did reach out and we're very thankful of that,” said Hansen.
As the facility's journey to normalcy continues, the staff is still there for every hole-in-one and every bingo.