Due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, a simple fly screen separates Uncle Jesse Barker and his wife of 50 years, Aunty Anne, on a visit to the Heritage Aged Care facility in Botany, where Uncle Jesse has resided for the last few years.
Uncle Jesse is a survivor of the ‘Stolen Generation’. He was removed from his family as a child and taken to the infamous government-run Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home near Kempsey in northern NSW, where he suffered immense abuse at the hands of those in charge.
Now, some seventy years later, Uncle Jesse has once again been separated from his family, this time as a result of the coronavirus, which has limited visits and prevented all direct physical contact with his family. In an effort to support their residents, the aged care home has recently opened a visiting window, where the residents can safely interact with their families from behind a screen.
Aunty Anne visits her long-time husband every second day. Each visit now ends with the couple holding their hands up against their respective sides of the dividing screen before Aunty Anne departs, at least until her next visit.
Part of an ongoing series, ‘COVID-19 Diaries’.
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