Surprise! Delight as hero mum returns
THIS is the emotional moment a brave nurse was reunited with her two daughters after nine weeks apart in the lockdown.
Suzanne Vaughan crept up on Bella, nine, and Hettie, seven, as they were relaxing in their aunt’s garden.
And they looked round in astonishment when they saw her and could not contain their joy as they hugged her.
Suzanne, 43, had taken the difficult decision to separate from the girls so she could focus on fighting the Covid-19 and minimise the spread.
But the single mum had no idea how long she would not see them.
Sacrifice
She treated victims in a hospital operating theatre and ICU. She also doubled her amount of work to more than 50 hours a week to help tackle the coronavirus.
Suzanne, from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, said: “I wanted to keep [the girls] safe, because I work at the hospital and was exposing myself to the virus each day. It was a really difficult decision but it was a sacrifice that needed to be made. It was something I needed to do.”
Suzanne, an operating department practitioner at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, told how she stayed in contact with her girls online when they stayed with her sister Charlotte in Peterborough.
She said: “We facetimed each day. I was tired from work and wanted to see them but I knew I couldn’t cuddle them so I stuck to it. There were many times I thought to myself I can’t do this any more. It was difficult the first few weeks, because I’d come home from work and they wouldn’t be there.
“It was dead quiet, no one running about or screaming or laughing, it was horrible. I don’t know what to do without them singing and dancing.”
But after nine weeks she was overworked and needed to see her girls. She said: “I just didn’t want to let them go and when they cried I just felt it in my heart. It was amazing. I thought I can’t ever let them go again.
“I’m just glad to be with them now, I was so overwhelmed both physically and mentally, it was surreal. We haven’t stopped cuddling for a minute since I’ve been back.”
Bella said: “Mummy did a brilliant job. She had to be away to save people. She’s my hero.”
Hettie added: “I’m so happy to be back home.”
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