GREENSBORO, N.C. — The pandemic has caused a lot of loneliness and isolation over the past year but more and more people are seeing hope. One of those people is Guilford County Deputy Chief Vic Maynard who said he is counting his blessings.
After more than a year apart, Maynard was finally able to be reunited with his parents. His mom and dad live only about 25 minutes away in an assisted living facility in nearby Randolph County.
"I would stand outside and talk to them through a window for the past year and that was it," said Deputy Chief Vic Maynard, Guilford County.
The Maynards would also video call each other on Facetime during the time that the strict no indoor visitation policy was in place. Last week, those visitation rules were relaxed.
Their heartfelt family reunion took exactly 54 weeks to take place.
Maynard was able to hug his mom, Louise, and dad, Johnny after the pandemic kept them separated from each other.
"After 54 weeks, I was able to go physically visit my parents this past weekend and spend a couple of hours with them. I actually took them dinner, it was a very good moment for all of us," Maynard said.
But that moment almost never happened. While His dad tested negative for COVID-19 12 times, his mom came down with coronavirus in December.
"Also with pneumonia, she had very high risk due to her health and she was put in Baptist Hospital and she survived it," Maynard said.
Maynard said he's counting his blessings because his parents aren't counted amongst those lost in the pandemic.
"We do not take that for granted. We realize we are very blessed and very fortunate and lucky and all those other words that go with it, to have both of our parents here when a lot of our friends and relatives are not here and they passed in the last year due to COVID-19," he said.
Maynard said he plans to visit his parents at every opportunity he gets and spend more time with them because he knows the time they have left is too precious.