After year of isolation, vaccinated older Americans start to reclaim their lives

Yet the 71-year-old college professor found herself on the verge of tears at, of all places, the eye doctor’s office – the first time in nearly a year she had stepped inside a building that was not her own home for more than a moment.

“I was so happy,” she said, recalling how exciting it was to walk into her grocery store again in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “I left with five different desserts and three different kinds of olives.”…

Lonnie Hanauer, 85, and his wife, Bette, are leaving their home in West Orange, New Jersey, this week and flying to Florida to visit their daughter, whom they haven’t seen since Thanksgiving in 2019. Last year’s Thanksgiving holiday was the first the couple spent alone, without their children, in more than a half-century.

“When you get old, you don’t know how many more,” he said.