The Saddest Goodbye: Married Pair Together For 62 Years Forced Into Different Care Homes
Wolf and Anita cry as they say goodbye (Facebook)
This may be the saddest of all goodbyes.
A loving couple who have been married for 62 years have been to forced to live separately because there is no space in their local care homes to accommodate both of them.
The plight of Wolf Gottschalk, 83, and his wife, Anita, 81, came to light after granddaughter Ashley Kaila posted on Facebook.
“Friends please read!” she wrote. “This is The saddest photo I have ever taken. This is my Omi and my Opi. As you can see they are both wiping away tears!”
The post has now been viewed more than 4,600 times.
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The family are worried that the couple’s failing health could be further impacted by the fact they are apart.
Wolf and Anita have been living apart for eight months because of the lack of care home space available.
In happier times: the couple have been married since 1954 (Facebook)
The pair, originally from Germany, married in 1954 and soon after emigrated to Surrey in British Columbia, Canada.
They later had a son and two daughters.
Wolf is on a waiting list to move into the same home as his wife, run by Fraser Health Authority, but it not known how long that might take.
He is in the early stages of dementia and has just been diagnosed with lymphoma. He has also congestive heart failure.
The local health authority say they are desperately trying to find a home for the couple (Facebook)
Family members are able to make sure the couple see each other every other day but say they are frustrated by the lack of official help.
“Just to be clear, in some interviews Fraser health is saying they are working closely with my family to get my grandpa moved,” Ashley posted on August 24.
“I want to be clear, we still have not received one single phone call from them in the past 8 months that this has been going on.”
The couple’s only son, Bill, said his parents ‘need their time together’.
Fraser Health Authority said the situation was ‘upsetting for us as well’ and that it was ‘working hard’ to make sure they are reunited.