Tears flow for ‘saddest photo’ of split pair
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A photograph of a crying elderly Canadian couple in wheelchairs, separated into two different care homes after 62 years of marriage because no beds were available together, has received international attention.
Wolfram Gottschalk, 83, of Surrey, British Columbia, was put in an assisted living home in January after he suffered dementia health complications making it impossible for wife Anita, 81, to care for him at home.
Four months later, Anita entered a different facility despite family efforts to keep them together.
The facilities are half an hour apart, with family driving Anita to see Wolfram several times a week.
Granddaughter Ashley Bartyik took “the saddest photo I have ever taken” when her grandparents were brought together recently.
Wolfram was diagnosed with lymphoma last week, so the family is desperate for them to be together to live out their last days.
“I see desperation,” Bartyik said. “I see people married for 62 years pulled apart by a system. I see the love they have for each other.”
She took to social media to draw attention to the family’s plight and said the family had been working to find a care home to accommodate both grandparents.
Bartyik said the first call from the local health authority came Thursday after the photo got international attention. “We were told he is a top priority,” Bartyik said.
She said her grandfather’s dementia is growing and the family is afraid Wolfram soon won’t remember Anita.
The couple met in Germany in 1954 and married four months later. Wolfram was a bricklayer and a shortage of work after World War II led the couple to immigrate to Canada.