This is the adorable moment an elderly couple married for 73 years were reunited in a care home after spending nearly a whole year apart.
Joseph Andrew Bigler, 96, and Margaret Louise Baldwin Bigler, 97, were forced to live separately by the pandemic.
But there wasn’t a dry eye in the room when the pensioners saw each other for the first time in the care home sitting room.
They embraced from their wheelchairs, burying their faces into each others shoulders, with Margaret repeating “oh my god!”.
Nonagenarian Margaret was admitted to HarmarVillage Care Center in Cheswick, Pennsylvania, USA on April 7 2020 after a hospital stay.
Beloved husband Joseph was still in independent living when it turned out that Margaret needed long-term care at the care home.
The coronavirus pandemic meant it would be unsafe for them to see each other, so the devastated pensioners stayed apart.
But on March 22, nearly a whole year later, Joseph was admitted to the same care home himself for skilled nursing, and they were finally able to reunite.
Margaret said it was one of the best days of her life.
Holly Bills, from social services at HarmarVillage, said: “Staff were very excited to see them together again. It was a happy day for all.
“Both are amazing people that are still madly in love with hopes of being together again sometime soon.”
Joe described their time apart as “hell” but is “very grateful for the care Margaret has been given”.
Wife Margaret said “it had been hard not seeing Joe and very sad”.
The happy couple met through Margaret’s brother, and were married over seven decades ago on May 31 1948.
Margaret was a housewife, and Joseph worked at an excavating company until he retired in his 60s.
Joe is now a resident at an assisted living facility attached to HarmarVillage and the two can visit regularly following Department of Health guidelines.
Joe said that “words cannot describe how it was to be able to hug her again after almost a year”.
The care home uploaded the video to their Facebook page on March 22 where it went viral and gained over 44,000 likes and five million views.
The caption read “A year later and finally these two love birds got to be reunited. Not a dry eye in sight”.
