The 74-year-old, like so many families around the state, was trying to make most of a Mother's Day like no other when she could have no family members around.

Ruth, a well known Maitland historian, is in COVID-19 lockdown in a local aged care facility, with one-on-one visits out of the question for now.

Any books have to be through a glass window and booked ahead - but none on Mother's Day.

"The hard part was I wasn't able to get to hold my new grand-daughter Harriet," Ruth explained.

"She's just 12-weeks old and l've only ever seen pictures of her or seen her on Skype. I really wanted to be able to give her a grandma's cuddle, but it wasn't to be."

Ruth, whose husband Bruce passed away last year, has instead been learning Skype in readiness, so she can have some face to face conversations - although by her own admission she's "not very technical".

So for the mother of three - daughter Beverley lives in Wallalong, son Rodney in Greta and daughter Tiana in Dubbo - a bit of Skype time with her kids and her 11 grandchildren was all she could do to make the most out of a bad situation.

"I fully understand why this is happening," she said. "The staff here at Largs have been wonderful, and while a lot of people were disappointed, we all understood it's for the best.

"But they tried hard to make it a fun day for us.

"We had a mother's day raffle on Friday when just about everybody won a prize, and that was followed by a special afternoon tea with delicate sweets, and then at breakfast this morning we all got a card and a chocolate.

"It was a different kind of Mother's Day, but this isn't forever. It might go until the end of the year, who knows, but it will be over soon."

In the meantime she's using the time to start writing her family history.

"I've got about 7000 words done, so I'm making progress, but there's a long way to go."

And what's the hardest part about lockdown, aside from the obvious lack of family and visitors?

"For me, it's that we don't get the live entertainers coming here any more," she said.

"We used to have musicians and entertainers ... we all looked forward to that."