IT’S MUMMY!
Moment NHS hero sees daughters for first time in 9 weeks
FOR nine long weeks they had been missing their mother, an NHS worker on the Covid-19 front line.
So when Bella and Hettie Vaughan were finally reunited with her, it was such a surprise they could hardly believe it.
Suzie Vaughan, who had sent them to live with their aunt to protect them from coronavirus, crept up on them as they stared at a laptop. She spent several seconds crouched behind the girls, then asked what they were watching.
For a moment, they still didn’t realise, until Bella, nine, yelled: ‘Mummy!’ She and Hettie, seven, leapt into Miss Vaughan’s arms, all three sobbing as they hugged.
The heartwarming reunion on Sunday was filmed by their aunt – whose dogs joined in the excitement – and has gone viral across the world. Talking about the moment yesterday, Hettie said: ‘Bella said “Mummy!” I said “Mum’s not here”. ‘I turned round and then I was like “Oh my god, it is Mummy!” I was so happy. I was happy crying.’
Her sister added: ‘I thought it was all a dream but it wasn’t. I said “Oh my god, I can’t believe it”. It was like the happiest day of my life.’ Miss Vaughan, 43, said: ‘I just sneaked up on them in the garden
– it was a spur of the moment idea. When they started crying I felt so bad – but so relieved I was back with them.’
She had sent the girls to live with her sister Charlotte Jones, 33, in Peterborough when she was redeployed to help care for Covid-19 patients in late March. She said: ‘I explained to them that I was going to look after a lot of sick patients so they would have to spend time with their Auntie Charlotte.
‘They were a little bit anxious about it but understood. I told them it would only be a couple of weeks so it wouldn’t sound too bad. When I dropped them off I just cried my eyes out.’
Miss Vaughan, an operating department practitioner at Queen’s Hospital in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, kept her spirits up by talking to the girls on FaceTime and messaging – including on her birthday, which they had to spend apart. She is back on normal shifts – and the risk of infection is much lower – but was working 50 hours a week.
‘I’ve never experienced anything like it. It was emotionally and physically exhausting,’ she said.