‘I know that you will always be with us in our hearts’: Heartbreaking moment carer reads family’s goodbye letter to grandmother days before she died of coronavirus in care home
- Peggy Grainger had symptoms while at Philia Lodge Care Home, Peterborough
- Laura Dunn-Green breaks down reading a message from granddaugher Gemma
- The carer described being asked by relatives to deliver the note as ‘an honour’
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
A carer was moved to tears as she read a heartbreaking goodbye letter from a granddaughter to her dying nan.
Peggy Grainger, who was suffering from coronavirus symptoms and also had dementia, died earlier this month at Philia Lodge Care Home in Peterborough.
Her loved ones were unable to visit the 86-year-old in her final moments as a result of the lockdown restrictions and so penned an emotional message which was then read to her by a staff member, ITV News reported.
In the letter, Ms Grainger’s granddaughter Gemma said how sorry she was for not being able to be there with her for her ‘final breaths’.
‘For now Grandma, this is goodbye, but I know that you will always be with us in our hearts that you have helped make so full of love and happy memories for us to treasure forever,’ she wrote.
‘We are all there next to you in spirit, and will be always and forever.’
She also asked her grandmother to send love from relatives to their late grandfather, but joked: ‘We know he’s been waiting for you, but don’t let him start ordering you around – it’s your turn for him to wait on you.’
Peggy Grainger, pictured, died at Philia Lodge Rest Home in Peterborough having suffered coronavirus symptoms
The voice of carer Laura Dunn-Green, dressed in full personal protective equipment, starts to crack as she reads out the touching note, which she described being asked to do as ‘an honour’.
She then broke down in tears as she told the broadcaster: ‘Being here won’t be the same without her.
‘I’m glad she’s at rest now and in peace. I will miss her every day. Being here won’t be the same without her.’
It comes as a University of Cambridge statistician claimed yesterday more people may be dying of coronavirus in care homes than in hospitals already.
Sir David Spiegelhalter made the shocking claim after the Office for National Statistics released its weekly data showing thousands of people are dying out of hospital and not being counted until weeks later.
Laura Dunn-Green, pictured, reads out a heartbreaking message to the 86-year-old from her granddaughter Gemma
The carer, pictured, becomes emotional as she reads the heartbreaking words penned by the family
Laura, pictured, broke down as she said she will miss Peggy’s presence at the home ‘every day’
The professor, a highly regarded statistics expert and an OBE recipient, said he believes the numbers of care home deaths are still climbing as Government statistics show hospital fatalities are trailing off.
New figures compiled by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) show care homes and hospitals in England are now reporting around 400 Covid-19-linked deaths a day.
While deaths in hospitals have been steadily decreasing – 586 were announced yesterday, down from 980 at the outbreak’s peak – nursing homes could still be in the depths of their crisis. The way data is backdated means that the true picture is unclear because we currently only have statistics from two weeks ago.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, however, last night promised that the Department of Health would publish care home deaths on a daily basis starting from today, meaning the situation could become clear within days.
The true scale of the crisis in care homes has also been masked by a lack of routine testing, meaning thousands of elderly residents may have died without ever being diagnosed.
Professor John Newton, the Government’s testing chief, yesterday said officials had been working on the assumption that if one person tested positive for Covid-19 in a home then anyone else who developed symptoms probably also had it and didn’t need testing.