The saddest photo I've ever taken



 

Wolfram Gottschalk and his wife Anita have been married 62 years. But now in their old age, they’re living apart, against their will. Whenever they get a chance to visit one another, both burst into tears.

“I just want to see them together,” said the couple’s granddaughter Ashley Bartyik. “They’re a pillar of strength in our family.”

Wolf, 83, and Anita, 81, are in separate care facilities in Surrey, B.C., and even though the regional health authority says it’s working to reunite the couple, their families fear time is running out. Wolf has dementia and has been diagnosed with lymphoma.

In January, Wolf was hospitalized and told he couldn’t go home, because he required a higher level of care. He was moved to the Yale Road Centre in North Surrey, where he’s been living for the past eight months, apart from his wife. Anita lives at The Residence at Morgan Heights, a 30-minute drive from her husband.

“She is just begging anyone that can help her get her husband back," Bartyik said. "It’s been very, very difficult for our family.”

Bartyik drew attention to her grandparents’ plight when she posted a photo of them during a visit. Both were wiping tears from their eyes, as they sat facing one another. Wolf slumped in a wheelchair.

“This is the saddest photo I have ever taken,” Bartyik wrote.

“They cry every time they see each other, and it is heartbreaking.”

Fraser Health said it’s trying to reunite the couple and get them living under one roof

“We are also exploring options other than this particular facility that his wife is at now,” said spokeswoman Tasleem Juma.

“Certainly when the scope is narrowed to one facility, it becomes difficult to place them there, because we have to wait for another bed to become available.”

Since there is so little time left for the couple, I think Tasleem Juma should move her butt. When people co-operate and work together solutions can be found quickly. Obviously the system is not sympathetic to human beings or the human condition.

So change the damn system.