Assisted living and nursing homes have been on lockdown for months.
With restrictions on visitors, cancelled trips, and fears of the virus.
it can be lonely and isolating.
Amid the sadness though, there are flickers of hope.
10News reporter Cole Sullivan brought old fashioned disposable cameras to an assisted living home and shares their photos of life on the inside.
For some of us, life seems to creep back to a near normal.
But inside long term care facilities like Knoxville's Renaissance Terrace, the world feels frozen in place.
"I just want this to be over with so our families can hug us and love us again," Shirley Dennis Vandeaveer said.
Like in a photo, time stands still.
Life on the Inside
"We don't go out. We have not gone out," Resident Faye Kuehn said.
With disposable cameras, Faye Kuehn and Shirley Vandeaveer capture life in lockdown.
"I was still scared, I still am," Vandeaveer said.
Now their world stretches only as far as the view from the window
"The motorcycle shop is kinda fun because there's one guy that makes all the noise," Faye Kuehn said.
Family and friends must stop at the door.
"I just want this to be over so our families can hug us and love us again," Shirley Dennis Vandeaveer said.
Tests confirm the virus has stayed out for now. But fear can spread fast.
"I don't want my grandkids or great grandkids to have it, I'm sorry," Vandeaveer said.
And coping is something they have to learn how to do.
"You just learn to do the best you can under the circumstances. I think … you adjust," Kuehn said.
Adjusting is something residents have tried to do - with birthday parties and group activities.
"I certainly don't want to miss bingo," Vandeaveer said.
Flowers brighten the yard. Keeping them alive brightens the mood.
"Everybody puts a finger in there and talks to the plants," Kuehn said.
Inside they are closed off, but not forgotten.
"This means as much as a big hug knowing that they're there for us. Because it they wasn't there than we wouldn't have no hope," Vandeaveer said.
The coronavirus may make the oldest the sickest, and so it may mean people like Vandeaveer and Kuehn are stuck inside the longest.
But they also may be the strongest.
"You know if you have to make provision to stay alive, I think you can figure it out," Kuehn said.
And no photo can capture that.
Tonight at 5:55 p.m., hear the full story on WBIR Channel 10 News.