Loosened COVID-19 restrictions across Canada mean people are starting to plan trips to reunite with far-flung family members after not seeing each other for almost two years.
For a Halifax woman who surprised her son in Winnipeg earlier this month, it meant years of worries about his health instantly washed away.
Shelly Quade told 680 CJOB the reunion was an “incredible” feeling, especially as her 25-year-old son, Bretton Tyler, has a medical condition that could have been deadly if he had contracted the virus.
“It was like my heart was finally healing,” she said. “I can’t even describe how awesome it was.
“The worries that I had in Nova Scotia, knowing that he was working as an essential worker and he had to do it…
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“If he got COVID, he would die. It was really hard as a mom to be so far away.”
Quade said she surprised him by pretending to be a courier. She phoned him and said she was outside with a package.
“I couldn’t even believe it. I didn’t even recognize him, because his hair is so crazy, and he didn’t recognize me because he didn’t expect me to be there.
“We hadn’t seen each other in so long, so it was a perfect surprise.”
The reunion was such an emotional one that Quade said she and her husband have made the decision to move back to Manitoba permanently.
The province continues to loosen pandemic restrictions as cases drop and vaccination rates increase.
Health officials said last month that they would look at gradually loosening restrictions if certain vaccination milestones are hit over the summer, provided daily case numbers and hospitalization rates have also fallen.
The province has hit its first two milestones ahead of target — most recently 75 per cent of eligible Manitobans having their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 50 per cent having their second.
That goal, originally slated for the August long weekend, has already been achieved.
“Thanks to the incredible efforts of Manitoba’s vaccine team and Manitobans’ willingness to roll up their sleeves – not once, but twice – we are able to move forward earlier than anticipated with fewer restrictions on our economy and our communities,” Premier Brian Pallister said Wednesday.
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