Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

This elderly couple with coronavirus have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with the help of staff in an Italian intensive care unit and are now on the road to recovery.

The touching celebration took place in the Murri Hospital located in the municipality of Fermo, in the eastern Italian region of Marche, where Sandra, 71, and her husband Giancarlo, 73, were being treated for COVID-19.

Roberta Ferretti, a reanimation nurse in the hospital, found out that the couple were due to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and worked with the other staff members to organise a party.

Ferretti told local media: “Sandra cried a lot, not for herself, she was worried about her husband. He told me how much he still loved her, after so many years. When I found out that it was their anniversary, I thought they had to celebrate it.”

The party only lasted 10 minutes and in the photos, the staff in full protective gear can be seen next surrounding the couple and making love hearts with their hands.

Ferretti added: “We put the 50 candle on a small cake because you cannot light it near oxygen, we played the Wedding March, they had their beds together and they held hands, with the little strength they still have.

“It was an amazing moment, very beautiful, those minutes alone pay us for all the sacrifice we have made these days. He kept repeating how much he loves her, we broke into tears. In the air, you could feel the love you chase your whole life”.

Lusisanna Cola, the head of the intensive care unit, said. “I only push my cooperators to always see the person and the patient and use their identity and their history as support for their recovery. Sometimes, a miracle happens, like in this case”.

The couple’s children, named Gianluca and Andrea, reportedly received the photo of the celebration and thanked the hospital staff, saying: “We have received a fantastic gift. Our parents were born to be together, they are an old fashioned couple, those which do not exist anymore”.

Local media report that the couple have been released from reanimation and it is believed that they will be discharged together.

Nurse Ferretti said: “I really hope people keep staying at home.”

According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Italy has registered 159,516 cases of COVID-19, with 20,465 deaths

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