5 years after first cases, Manitoba families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 still feel missed moments – CBC
No-visitor policies in hospitals during pandemic ‘really broke people emotionally,’ advocate says
Mar 09, 2025
Retired nurse Valerie Alderson doesn’t find herself thinking back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic anymore, but when someone brings it up, “it’s a flashback of what has happened.”
That includes the death of her 82-year-old dad, Lloyd Hodgins, who was sent to the hospital after breaking his hip in a fall and died not long after of COVID-19 complications, in November 2021, “all alone, without anybody,” because of pandemic rules at the time restricting hospital visitors.
“Both my sister and I were vaccinated. We could have had our masks on, visors on, gown on, gloves on to be with him,” said Alderson, 63.
“I always think it’s important that when you have a loved one go … for someone to be there, whether it’s to hold their hand, to wipe their face, to sing a song, to read poetry, whatever. Because the hearing is the last thing that goes on any person that’s passing away, and then they’re gone.”
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/covid-19-visitor-policies-look-back-1.7478073
