Couple Heartbroken When Forced To Live Apart After 62 Years Of Marriage
Bring out the Kleenex...a whole box of it.
After being together every single day for 62 years, Wolfram (83) and Anita Gottschalk (81) have been forced to live in separate care facilities for the past eight months.
The couple's granddaughter Ashley Bartyik, has been driving Anita for over an hour every other day for the lovebirds to spend a mere two hours together, which when you're deeply in love, feels like minutes.
Because of their care facilities' inability to accommodate both of their individual needs under the same roof, the couple's rendezvous have gone from blissful and never-ending to short, painful, and full of tears.
"They cry every time they see each other, and it is heartbreaking," Ashley said on Facebook, blaming the tragedy on backlogs and delays by the healthcare system.
"My grandma can't even kiss him goodnight now. He calls out for her when he sees her," she told Daily Mail.
What's worse is that Wolf was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and dementia, after already suffering from congestive heart failure.
"His dementia is growing stronger each day, but his memory of my grandmother has not faded an inch...yet," Ashley shared on her Facebook page. "We are afraid, however, that if they are living apart much longer, his memory of her won't stay."
The couple's 59-year-old son, Bill Gottschalk, fears "something is going to happen because of this problem to them, emotionally".
"They need their time together," he told Daily Mail. "If either one of them were to pass away while they're separated, it would be devastating for them and the family. They need to be together..."
Luckily, after Ashley made her plea viral on Facebook, giving thousands of people all the feels, Wolf has been moved from Yale Road Centre to Rosemary Heights, a facility closer to The Residence at Morgan Heights, where his beloved Anita stays.
For a couple so in love and living their last years, they want, need, and should be together. And we're so tearfully happy to see some progress! Thank you Wolf and Anita for showing us the power of love!
SHARE with your friends and family to show them what true love looks like!
