An elderly couple in Nova Scotia who have been together for more than six decades is pleading with provincial officials to help them spend their final days together.
Edgar MacPhee, 85, and his wife Theresa, 90, married just before New Year's Eve in 1952 and have spent a lifetime with one another. But for the last year, they have been forced to live apart.
Theresa lives in at the Glen Haven Manor nursing home in New Glasgow. Edgar is at a hospital in Antigonish, about a half-hour drive away. Edgar cannot live in Theresa’s nursing home because his health-care needs are too great.
Both are wheelchair bound and thus need someone to drive them when they want to visit each other. When they do get together at the nursing home, Edgar isn’t allowed to stay the night.
Theresa says the situation isn't right.
"I think it's terrible, keeping us apart," she told CTV Atlantic.
"Why should we be separated just because our assessment is different than one another?" adds her husband, Edgar.
Their children say the separation is devastating to their parents.
"When Mom calls, crying, she's lonesome," says their daughter, Verna Stone. "I mean, we take Dad here, but we can't leave him here. We have to take him back."
Provincial health officials say they are sympathetic, but long-term care patients are assessed on their individual needs, not their marital status.
In a statement, Nova Scotia Health Authority Senior Director Susan Stevens says the couple could move to one of 15 provincial care facilities that can accommodate both levels of care.
The family says they tried to get a room at such a facility in Port Hawkesbury, more than 100 kilometres away, but were told there was no space.
So for now, the MacPhees continue to go to bed alone. Their frustration and sadness are growing, but they say they would do whatever it takes to spend their final days together.
With a report from CTV Atlantic's Bruce Frisko
