BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Since the coronavirus pandemic hit Spain, a glass panel has separated Xavier Antó and Carmen Panzano for the first extended period of the couple’s 65-year marriage.
Antó, 90, appears three or four times a week at the window on the street leading to the old people’s home in Barcelona where his 92-year-old wife lives, which has been closed to visitors for more than a year. year ago to protect residents from COVID 19.
The employees at home offer him a chair and bring Panzano to the other side of the window. Antó shows them photos of their grandchildren on his phone to try to counteract the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
Both have coronavirus vaccines, but nursing homes in Spain are still under strict control after tens of thousands of the country’s elderly adults died in care facilities for the elderly in the first months of the pandemic.
The couple met in 1953 and got married in 1955. Except for a spell at the beginning of their marriage, when he worked away from home, they were always together.
“We were never separated,” Antó told The Associated Press. “In March last year, the director of the house told me that when I left, I would not be able to return because the local authorities had established some very strict protocols.”
At first, homeworkers made video calls on a tablet two or three times a week so he and Panzano could see each other, he said.
“Then they arranged a cabin with a transparent separator, but I prefer this window, because with the cabin you were limited to a certain day and then you only had half an hour,” Antó recalled. “I came to the window, because there’s a screen in the cabin between you and I can’t touch or kiss her anyway.”
When he comes to visit, his wife and husband put their hands on the glass and kiss each other. Although they can’t be heard talking, at least they don’t worry about how much time they have to share.
When he can’t come, he is replaced by a home assistant who has worked for the couple for over 20 years.
“She’s like a daughter to us,” Antó said.
“I come as often as I can and I will continue to do so as long as my body allows me,” he said. “If I were sick, she would do the same for me and then for some.”
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AP writer Joseph Wilson contributed to this report.
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