By Jeff Beimfohr

BOSSIER CITY, LA (KTBS) -- When the coronavirus pandemic began, Gov. John Bel Edwards regulations confined nursing home patients to their facilities. They couldn't go out and their families couldn't go in.

For elderly patients, the wait to reunite with their families was excruciating; same for those on the outside.

After half a year, it looks like those regulations might start to loosen. But just before it happened, KTBS visited with one nonagenarian who'd had enough.

Meet Gerrie Miller, a nursing home patient. For months, her only view of the outside world was through screen mesh and glass. This was the only way Gerrie could visit with her family.

“I've been locked up for six months,” said Miller.

And while Miller and her family said she has received excellent care, the isolation has been unbearable.

“I need to see my children, my grandchildren ... and great-grandchildren,” Miller said.

Edwards’ COVID-19 lockdown confined seniors to their care facilities, family get-togethers became impossible. But Miller said, “It's time to let us out of here. ... It's affecting people mentally. We're depressed and there's just nothing the people here can do about it because we're just prisoners, really, literally prisoners and it’s time for the governor to let us out.”

Miller's daughter, state Rep. Dodie Horton, couldn't agree more.

“It's very difficult. I know the mandates … are to protect our most vulnerable citizen,” Horton said. “Now with treatments that are working and been successful I feel like after six months in total isolation that protection is doing more harm than good.”

“Mentally, spiritually, physically, mentally, we need out,” Miller said.

The window next door hides Margaret Ann Wright. She's been in this facility for almost five years, but the last six months with no family contact. Her daughter, Lynn Bond, is reduced to peeking through the shades while calling her mom on her cell phone.

“It's been hard on everyone,” Bond said. “We'd love to see each other. We'd love to be in the same room together.”

She added, “Oh, it’s been very hard on her. Her socialization, not having any, has been very hard. We've seen, here dementia has been a lot worse.”

“And it just breaks my heart. They feel like their being punished for something totally out of their control,” Horton said.

Miller would like to have the choice to leave if she wants to. “I want to go to Dollar Tree,” she said with a laugh.

The most recent guidance from Edwards that was issued in late September lifts the full ban on nursing home visits by allowing outdoor visitation with social distancing.

In the parishes with a 10 percent or less positivity rate and without any new cases within 14 days can allow indoor visitation.