Windows Bring Joy in a World Confused by Coronavirus

"He doesn't understand why he's inside and why I can't come and see him,” Boyd says. “So, that's when I put my hand on the window, and he put his there, and I was like, ‘Listen, everything is going to be OK. This will all blow over, and I'll be able to come inside and see you soon.’ And we both cried, and I told him I loved him, and he told me he loved me."

Charley Adams uses his company’s bucket truck to visit his 80-year-old mom, Julia Adams, on the third floor of her assisted living residence in New Middletown, Ohio.

Courtesy of Charley Adams

Games through the glass

In Chester, Connecticut, Patricia McGalliard, 92, has been delighted to have her 28-year-old grandson visit through the glass at her retirement community.

Erik Nisson, who normally works about 100 miles away in New York City, has been working from his parents’ Connecticut home during the COVID crisis and decided to surprise his grandma. He showed up with markers.

"I call her Moo-Moo,” Nisson says. “I was like, ‘Moo-Moo, we're gonna play some games.’ “

They played tic-tac-toe and hangman, and she gave him some knitting lessons through the window.

"She was extremely excited,” Nisson says. “It put a big smile on her face."

Visits can be scheduled

Shelton Mahala, 87, learns about the engagement of his granddaughter, Carly Boyd, through the window of his rehabilitation center in Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina.

Courtesy of Carly Boyd

Scenes like that are playing out across the country and the world. But for safety, the glass window must be closed, not open even slightly. Window screens also don’t protect people from germs. The idea is to see your loved one even if you can’t hear each other well or touch.

In Stafford Springs, Connecticut, Bob Shellard wanted to celebrate his wedding anniversary with his wife, Nancy, but she was quarantined inside her nursing home. So he stood outside with a poster that read: “I've loved you 67 years and still do. Happy Anniversary."

The Vancrest nursing and assisted living facility in Payne, Ohio, has been using Skype, walkie-talkies and what it's calling “window visits” to connect families. For Easter's window visit event, families decorated with window clings from the outside, and residents and staff members dressed up the windows from the inside.

Scheduling window visits has brought some joy back for residents during a stressful time, says Marty Bradford, Vancrest's administrator. “They're overjoyed,” she says. “They're happy again."

Vancrest, a nursing home and assisted living center in Payne, Ohio, has been arranging window visits between residents and family members who can’t come inside.

COURTESY OF VANCREST OF PAYNE, OHIO

Hunting for (stuffed) bear

Some of the window dressings are for kids of all ages. Vancrest staffers are placing teddy bears in windows as part of a “bear hunt” initiative in the town of about 1,100 residents near the Indiana-Ohio border.

Libraries nationwide are encouraging parents to read the beloved 1989 children's book We're Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen, and take a stroll around their neighborhood to look for teddy bears people are putting on windowsills.

In Junction City, Kansas, the idea has blown up. People have bears in windows, on porches and even as lawn displays — such as the family with a Jet Ski outside that has a bear wearing a life jacket.

“I'm a hair stylist in town, and I have a lot of elderly clients,” says Crystal Merrill, a bear hunt enthusiast. “And they've texted me and said, ‘We've put our bears out. We've decorated outside. Come see us, and call us when you get here.’ So they'll stand on their porch, and we'll stay in our vehicle, and we'll yell across the yard at them and have a conversation."

During a time when many people may be feeling down, windows like these are opening a bright spot by uplifting people, says Bradford, the Vancrest administrator.

"That was our whole goal,” she says.

More on the Coronavirus

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• Nursing homes scramble to enable televisits amid coronavirus
• Ways to boost your loved one's morale during the coronavirus epidemic