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Reading this story brought tears to my eyes. Couple who have spent almost their entire lives with one another, are being forced to spend their golden years apart because they cannot get into the same care home.
Wolf Gottschalk, 83, and his wife Anita, 81, met and fell in love while their families lived in the same apartment complex in Dusseldorf, Germany when they were teenagers.
The couple got married in 1954, as Wolf worked in construction as a Merchant Marine while wife Anita worked in retail.
After a few months of wedded bliss, they decided they wanted a better life for themselves and their future children and immigrated to Surrey, British Columbia.
The couple built a successful life for themselves and were always together as they went on to have a family – a son
| The couple at their wedding in 1954, 19 and 21 year old bride and groom then. |
But after 62 years of being together every single day, the couple have been forced to live separately for the past eight months because there are no spaces at care homes close by that can accommodate the married couple.
Their failing health means the pair have the urge to spend as much time with one another, while they still can.
Outlining the family’s seemingly impossible situation in a Facebook posting, their granddaughter Ashley Bartyik wrote of her sadness and frustration at the current situation.
‘After 62 years together, they’re inseparable. They do everything together.
In speaking to DailyMail.com, Ashley shared that her grandmother had cared for her husband up until January, when doctors told the family he needed to be in a care facility as his condition was worsening.
Wolf is on a waitlist to move into the same nursing home where his wife is being cared for, The Residence at Morgan Heights, but the Fraser Health Authority is unable to say when it might happen.
Their family is doing all they can to ensure the couple see each other as often as possible, so every other day family members drive Anita half and hour up the road to see her beloved husband.
