General Society: Society: News: Hankyoreh

material photo” alt=”Inside a nursing home in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. material photo” />

Inside a nursing home in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. <한겨레> Material photo

“This is the first time I can’t see my mother. On holidays, my mother was brought from the nursing hospital and the whole family spent it together. Last year, I brought my mother in a wheelchair to my house, and that was the last time I saw my mother properly. This year is not like a holiday, and my heart is lonely and empty.” Seol Dong-gwan, 64, said that last year’s New Year’s Eve keeps reminding me of tears. She was a mother who raised five siblings by herself after her father died at the age of four. Seol’s mother, who was living at a nursing hospital in Sunchang, Jeollabuk-do, died on the 26th of last month, a week after being confirmed by Corona 19. My mother was a patient with an underlying disease who had pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 92. Before the corona 19 was confirmed, he requested to be discharged from the nursing hospital, but when a corona 19 confirmed patient occurred in the hospital and entered a cohort (same group) quarantine, even this was impossible. In the end, Seol couldn’t keep his mother’s death. The last time I saw my mother was a video call ten days before her death. “I told you to be healthy and have a good meal. Even if my mother couldn’t understand the words, I recognized the faces of the children, so he laughed. I didn’t know that would be the last one. I don’t know how my mother died. I wonder if he might have passed away while only looking for his children. I can’t see my face, and what corona is… .” Face-to-face contact with nursing facilities such as nursing hospitals is prohibited due to the spread of Corona 19 during the Lunar New Year holiday following the last Chuseok holiday. Like Seol, families who have to break up with their parents or check their safety by video call should spend a painful time this New Year’s Day. Seol visited once a week until February of last year, but since then, visiting is restricted due to Corona 19, and so far, only three times have I been able to see my mother’s face. Even that, I watched it from a distance of 3m, or had a conversation through the glass window. The same is true of others. Song Mi-jeong, 53, who has her 89-year-old mother suffering from a stroke at a nursing hospital in Busan, went to the hospital every day before the spread of Corona 19 to meet her mother. Since March of last year, I have only had two visits. The patient was moved to a mobile bed on one side of the corridor covered with thick plastic, and the family watched from the other side. Even that was stopped altogether as the number of corona19 confirmed increased. “I couldn’t even make a phone call because my mother couldn’t speak. I’m worried about how well you are, and I’m sick because I don’t know when I’m going to die. I would like to be able to see wearing protective clothing. Please, I’m hoping you’ll be alive until I can meet you again.” Mr. Amugae Kim, 51, who has been serving his mother with Parkinson’s disease in a nursing hospital in Seoul for three years, also complained that “corona is like punishment.” He didn’t see his mother last fall and said, “It’s like a prison on a video call. Whenever I hear my mother telling me,’What are you doing because I live like this, my heart hurts so much.’ Even facility caregivers who have to take care of their children and elderly people who have been separated from life have a heavy heart ahead of the New Year. This is because the hearts of the elderly, who cry because they cannot see their children, are transmitted to the caregivers intact. Lee Amugae (58), a nursing care provider who works at a nursing home in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, said, “People with cognitive skills, even a little, struggle with the holidays. He asked for the date a few days ago and said,’My son will come in the Chinese New Year’. “No matter how much you say Corona 19, most of them don’t understand. “If we cry because we don’t come and think that we are abandoned, the tip of our nose becomes frown and tears come out.” Lee also has her mother in another nursing home, but it has been more than a year since she hasn’t seen it. Mr. Jeong Amugae, 53, a nursing care provider who works at a nursing home in Seongnam, also said, “It is more regrettable as the New Year approaches.” “A few days ago, an elderly man asked how many days it was. As the holidays get closer, we wait for our children to come. If you say you can’t come because of the corona, the expression of resignation will appear on your face.” In the nursing home where Mr. Lee works, the elderly and their family make video calls on their laptops this New Year’s Eve. “The seniors will take turns making video calls with their children for 5 to 10 minutes. You have to dress up the hanbok and do basic makeup. I’m most worried that somebody doesn’t understand that they have children beyond their laptops.” By Kim Yoon-joo, staff reporter and Jeon Kwang-jun [email protected]