PORTLAND, Maine — Bill Griffin waited more than a year for this moment: Newly vaccinated, he embraced his 3-year-old granddaughter for the first time since the pandemic began.
“She came running right over. I picked her up and gave her a hug. It was amazing,” the 70-year-old said after the reunion last weekend.
Spring has arrived with sunshine and warmer weather, and many older adults who have been vaccinated, like Griffin, are emerging from COVID-19-imposed hibernation.
From shopping in person or going to the gym to bigger milestones like visiting family, the people who were once most at risk from COVID-19 are beginning to move forward with getting their lives on track. More than 47 percent of Americans who are 65 and older are now fully vaccinated.
Visiting grandchildren is a top priority for many older adults. In Arizona, Gailen Krug has yet to hold her first grandchild, who was born a month into the pandemic in Minneapolis. Now fully vaccinated, Krug is making plans to travel for her granddaughter’s first birthday in April.
“I can’t wait,” said Krug, whose only interactions with the girl have been over Zoom and FaceTime. “It’s very strange to not have her in my life yet.”
The excitement she feels, however, is tempered with sadness. Her daughter-in-law’s mother, with whom she had been looking forward to sharing grandma duties, died of COVID-19 just hours after the baby’s birth. She contracted it at a nursing home.
Isolated by the pandemic, older adults were hard hit by loneliness caused by restrictions intended to keep people safe. Many of them sat out summer reunions, canceled vacation plans, and missed family holiday gatherings in November and December.
In states with older populations – like Maine, Arizona and Florida – health officials worried about the emotional and physical toll of loneliness, posing an additional health concern on top of the virus.
But that’s changing, and more older people are reappearing in public after they were among the first group to get vaccinated.
Those who are fully vaccinated are ready to go out without worrying they were endangering themselves amid a pandemic that has claimed more than 540,000 lives in the United States.
“Now there’s an extra level of confidence. I am feeling good about moving forward,” said Ken Hughes, a 79-year-old Florida resident who plans to fly with his wife for a pandemic-delayed annual trip to Arizona in April.
Plenty of older adults are eager to hop on a jet to travel. Others are looking forward to the simpler things like going to a movie theater or playing bingo.
Sally Adams, 74, was among several older people who showed up for “parking lot bingo” in Glendale, Ariz. She felt safe because she’d been vaccinated and because she was in her car at the first bingo event in more than year. Once she reaches peak immunity, she and her husband plan to indulge in little things like eating out.
“We’ll probably go in and take the farthest table from other people just to be on the safe side,” she said.
