Man Barred From Wife's Nursing Home Celebrates Anniversary From Outside

Adrianna Freedman
·3 min read

From Men's Health

  • In the middle of the coronavirus outbreak, a man was determined to celebrate his 67th wedding anniversary with his wife.

  • Bob Shellard stood outside of his wife's nursing home, holding a balloon bouquet and a homemade sign.

  • The coronavirus caused the couple to celebrate their wedding anniversary apart for the first time.

In the wake of the spread of the coronavirus outbreak and social distancing, there are people who are still attempting to celebrate the happier moments in life. And that’s exactly what one man did—with the help of a homemade sign.

In an attempt to celebrate his 67th wedding anniversary, Bob Shellard stood in front of his wife Nancy’s Stafford Springs, Connecticut nursing home over the weekend. Because of the fear of COVID-19 spreading, he couldn’t physically walk into the center to celebrate with his bride—but that clearly didn’t stop him from creating the next best option, because he brought with him a bouquet of balloons and a sign that he made himself.

“I’ve loved you 67 years and still do,” the sign read. “Happy anniversary.”

This is the first time in their marriage that Bob and Nancy weren’t celebrating their anniversary in the same place. “It makes me feel bad,” he told NBC New York (via Boston.com) about the kind gesture, “because I want her down with me and I know she can’t be.”

“I wouldn’t want anybody else,” he further told the site about being with his wife. “I don’t think she could put up with anybody else besides me.”

According to that NBC report, visitors are not allowed to visit nursing homes in Connecticut for 30 days in order to prevent the elderly from potentially contracting the virus, since they are at a higher risk. Before the ban went into effect, Bob made a point to visit his wife every day at the center.

Bob and Nancy’s daughter, Laura, also had kind words for what her father did and how all her siblings learned from their parents’ marriage. “They’ve always been an inspiration to us and I think just seeing every year go by that they still express it in some way on their anniversary.”

“All four of us have really learned a lot from them and I can only hope that I have half as much as what they have shared over the years.”

And what exactly did Nancy do when she saw her husband from her second-floor window? She did the most romantic thing she could think of—she waved back and blew kisses to her groom.

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