Vaccinated Elderly Couple Reunited After One Year: ‘I am gonna give her a big kiss’

An elderly couple in Pennsylvania has been able to enjoy brunch together once again after they both received the coronavirus vaccine.

“I am gonna give her a big kiss,” said Bill Fuller, moments before he greeted his wife Lola, whom he has been married to for 72 years. “A hug is only half the deal.”

For nine years, the 93-year-old couple has lived at a long-term care facility on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

Bill resides in the independent living part of the facility, and his wife lives in the part of the facility with more specialized care.

Their daughter, Ann Teschner, said they are so close it is like they are joined at the hip.

The Fullers used to have weekly Sunday brunch at the nursing home weekly since moving there in 2012. But in March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic put a pause on activities at the center.

“I could tell by my father’s visible appearance, facial expressions, his tone of his voice, I could tell it was really hard, especially at the beginning,” Teschner said.

It has been one year since they had shared that special meal together. When they were finally able to share brunch again, they sat together, eating while enjoying each other’s company.

“They both looked younger to me on Sunday,” said Teschner. “They just looked on top of their game.”

At the end of their meal, they blew kisses at each other:

As of Wednesday morning, more than 117 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed worldwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 29 million of those cases originated in the U.S.

In Philadelphia County, more than 27,000 people have been partially vaccinated while more than 18,000 have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health obtained by WTAE.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, 52% of all Chinese coronavirus deaths in Pennsylvania occurred in long-term care facilities.

Pennsylvania’s former Health Secretary, Rachel Levine, is President Joe Biden’s Assistant Secretary of Health nominee and the first openly transgender health secretary in the United States. Levine came under fire last year for taking her elderly mother out of a Pennsylvania nursing home while directing COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes.