“Christmas is over for us”: Elderly couple forced into separate care homes
An elderly couple have been left heartbroken after being forced into separate aged care facilities just days out from Christmas.
Herbert, 91, and Audrey Goodine, 89, of New Brunswick, Canada, have been together for 73 years and still sleep in the same bed, but their daughter was notified last week that her father would removed from the Victoria Villa Special Care Home he had been sharing with her mother.
In a Facebook post, their daughter Dianne Goodine Phillips wrote: “I read this message over several times in disbelief. How can anyone be so cold and cruel to do this a week prior to Christmas?”
Dianne said she was given three option for her parents: two of them were to move to nursing homes more than two hours away from friends and family, the other was for her father to move to a home closer to family but away from his wife.
“Because I was unwilling to make a decision on his new location within a few hours a representative from Social Development and a representative from the Victoria Villa approached my parents and forced them to make the decision on their own,” Dianne wrote.
“I feel people need to know what a flawed system we have in place. Two words describe it ‘unethical and cruel’.”
Dianne said her parents are devastated by the move, with her father moved to his new home on Monday.
“When talking to my parents yesterday I listened to my mother weep and I could hear my father in the background,” Dianne said.
“My mother said ‘Christmas is over for us now and this is the worst Christmas that we will ever have. Why could they not have waited till after the holidays?’”
“I assured her that I tried everything to keep them together a few more days.”
In a statement to CTV News, a Department of Social Development spokesperson said, “individuals who require a higher level of care than what can be provided in special care homes are moved to where their needs can be more appropriately met.”