Daily Express

Heartbreak as husband is banned from visits

- By Sarah O’Grady Social Affairs Correspond­ent

A COUPLE have been banned from seeing each other on their 63rd wedding anniversar­y tomorrow because of fears about spreading the virus.

Matthew Nicholson, 82, has been standing outside the care home window to wave at his wife Catherine, 81, three times a week since April.

But new managers at MHA Cedar Lodge in Wootton Wawen, Warwickshi­re, have told him he is forbidden from going to the home to see Catherine.

This was because he lives in Hockley Heath, West Midlands, which is under a local lockdown.

The great- grandfathe­r- of- 18 has since moved in with his daughter in Worcester so he is out of the restrictio­n zone.

Daughter, Cat Snelling, 53, said: “I know we have to protect everybody, but how can you keep a pub open and I could go there and see my dad, but he can’t go and look at my mum through a window?

This is heartbreak­ing.”

A spokesman for Methodist Homes, which runs the care home, said: “We appreciate the distress the situation is causing.

“As a care provider, we have to put the needs and safety of the residents we care for at the forefront of everything we do.”

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 ??  ?? Devoted... Matthew with Catherine before the first lockdown and, inset, the couple in their younger days
Devoted... Matthew with Catherine before the first lockdown and, inset, the couple in their younger days

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