On a late January morning, 86-year-old Margaret Sullivan was waiting in line at the retirement home where she lives in Fairfax County, surrounded by dozens of other residents and staff.

“I don’t think any of us have been in a room with this many people in weeks,” she said, waiting her turn to get the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. She’s one of tens of thousands of seniors throughout the D.C. region to be vaccinated in the first few weeks of 2021.

The pandemic has brought varying levels of isolation and lockdown to the facility where Margaret lives. There have been added restrictions in place since a flare-up of COVID-19 cases after Thanksgiving. The dining room has been closed, and social life curtailed.

The vaccine was being administered in the retirement home’s auditorium, CVS pharmacists in white coats working quickly behind temporary privacy curtains, aiming to inoculate 300 residents and staff over the course of the day.

People were excited to be getting the vaccine, but also excited just to be out of their apartments, seeing each other.

As Margaret waited with her husband Dan, she called out to neighbors she hadn’t seen for weeks. They traded news of grandchildren, and Margaret told the story behind the new brown and white patterned masks she and Dan were wearing.

The masks, made of Indonesian batik fabric, were a Christmas gift from Margaret’s youngest son. “Charley made them out of a tablecloth that I made in Jakarta 50 years ago,” she explained. (The family lived in Asia and Africa for decades, during Dan’s career in the foreign service.)

As she waited, Margaret told me about her not-very-Christmassy Christmas: she and her husband Dan, alone in their apartment. But they did do a Zoom call with all the kids and grandkids.

“I have a nice family picture as a consequence. It is the most unusual family picture — I’ll send it to you.” She did.

She didn’t take a screenshot — “I just took out my camera,” she explained, and snapped a photo of the the computer screen during the call. It shows eight rectangles, each branch of the family in its own little box.

More than 10 months into the pandemic, Margaret is tiring of the isolation, and the successive rounds of lockdown. “I think it’s getting old.”

Finally — Margaret and Dan heard the words they were waiting for.

“Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan? I’m ready for you,” called a woman, who then led them into the auditorium.

The large room was buzzing with activity. Margaret sat down with pharmacist Bei Wang, who warned of the potential mild side effects, as she administered the shot in Margaret’s left arm.

Margaret said it’s a moment she’d hoped for, for months and months. She knows it won’t mean a return to normal any time soon, but she hopes it will mean a bit less isolation.