In pictures: Emotions overflow as Spanish nursing home allows hugs through plastic screen
Elderly family members meet each other for the first time in months in a Spanish nursing home
ADVERTISEMENTOn hundred and two. That's how many days Agustina Cañamero spent away from her husband Pascual Pérez who resides at the Ballesol Puig i Fabra nursing home in Barcelona, Spain.
The establishment was one of many that locked out visitors to try to shield their residents from the deadly coronavirus. Spain's nursing homes were hit particularly hard by it, with the nationwide death toll reaching at least 28,300.
During their 59 years of marriage, the husband and wife, now both in their eighties, had never lived so many days apart.
Cañamero spent the country's nationwide lockdown at the home she and Pérez used to share, gripped with fear.
She was one of the first to arrive at the nursing home when it reopened on 22 June. The couple kissed and hugged for minutes through the thin layer of plastic and their face masks.
Dolores Reyes, 61, and her father, José Reyes, 87, could also spend some time together for the first time in nearly four months.
Beatriz Segura carefully put on long gloves before reaching her arms through two holes in the plastic film to hug her 96-year-old mother Isabel López who also lives in Ballesol Puig i Fabra. It was their first in-person encounter since March 15.
Segura said she was looking forward to taking her mother out to a restaurant and she replied that her first priority was getting to a beauty salon.
