Photograph of separated elderly Canada couple gets attention

[rooster59]

Photograph of separated elderly Canada couple gets attention

 

JEREMY HAINSWORTH, Associated Press

 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — 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. She notes that he reaches and cries out for her.

 

Wolfram was diagnosed with lymphoma Aug. 23. Now, the family is desperate for the couple to be together to live out their remaining 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. But the couple's immediate health concerns led them to be put in separate facilities.

 

"It's a little bit of a broken system right now," Bartyik said.

 

She said the first call from the local health authority came Aug. 25, after the photo received international attention. "We were told he is a top priority," Bartyik said.

 

She said Anita is more aware of what is happening than her husband. She said her grandfather's dementia is growing and the family is afraid Wolfram soon won't remember Anita.

 

"With the news of cancer, our fight to have them in the same facility is even more urgent," Bartyik said.

 

Fraser Health spokeswoman Tasleem Juma said the authority tries to keep families together but that Wolfram's care needs are higher than Anita's. She said a facility must meet both patients' needs, and the authority expects to complete that work in several weeks.

 

"This is very upsetting for the family and is upsetting for us as well," Juma said. "It's not unusual for senior couples to need different levels of care at different times," she said.

 

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.

 

Bartyik said the couple speaks in their native German in sad situations and Wolfram calls Anita "my little mouse" in German, Bartyik said. "That's what he calls out when he sees her," Bartyik said..

 

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-08-27

[carstenp]

And where is the Photograph

[billd766]

15 minutes ago, carstenp said:

And where is the Photograph

 

Do you know how easy it is to find things on the internet using Google as a search engine?

 

Just for you but don't show anybody else.

 

5 or 6 clicks with my computer mouse and there it is complete with a story.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37198168

[Rancid]

So like separating siblings in orphanages, just like the Brothers Grimsby (very funny if not disturbing movie by the way). Our bureaucratic overlords are unlikely to be sympathetic, why should they be, their retirement plans are far superior to what most of us will ever see.

[mesterm]

29 minutes ago, billd766 said:

 

Do you know how easy it is to find things on the internet using Google as a search engine?

 

Just for you but don't show anybody else.

 

5 or 6 clicks with my computer mouse and there it is complete with a story.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37198168

 

I don't think his request was that unreasonable. I mean the entire article centers around a photograph, and it's so hard to include that photo in it?

 

But whatever, you've posted it. Thanks.

[carstenp]

4 hours ago, billd766 said:

 

Do you know how easy it is to find things on the internet using Google as a search engine?

 

Just for you but don't show anybody else.

 

5 or 6 clicks with my computer mouse and there it is complete with a story.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37198168

 

Well it seems like you do not understand, that making and publish a article with a Photo as main source, there is not there, is a bit funny. You do know TV wants to be the best News source for foreigner here in Thailand, so it should have some quality

Edited August 27, 2016 by carstenp

[GOLDBUGGY]

A bricklayer who couldn't find work because of a shortage of work after World War II? Gosh! Something fishy about that statement. 

 

Judging from the pictures I saw of Berlin after the war, I would think these guys would be working double overtime on Saturdays and Sundays.  

[billd766]

6 hours ago, carstenp said:

 

Well it seems like you do not understand, that making and publish a article with a Photo as main source, there is not there, is a bit funny. You do know TV wants to be the best News source for foreigner here in Thailand, so it should have some quality

 

TVF wants to be the best news source for foreigners. Is that a joke or something?

 

There is a whole world of news and information with just a few clicks of the mouse and I am afraid that TVF is nowhere in the top 500.

 

I get my main news from the BBC, my local papers, other forums etc which is of far more use to me.

 

I posted the link because you were complaining that it should have been there and it wasn't. Whose fault was that if it wasn't TVF. If you were really interested in the photo you could have done the same as I did. In fact I had already seen the OP on the BBC news website 5 hours earlier, saw the photo and read the text and passed on.

[carstenp]

Nomits not a joke. 

8 hours ago, billd766 said:

 

TVF wants to be the best news source for foreigners. Is that a joke or something?

 

There is a whole world of news and information with just a few clicks of the mouse and I am afraid that TVF is nowhere in the top 500.

 

I get my main news from the BBC, my local papers, other forums etc which is of far more use to me.

 

I posted the link because you were complaining that it should have been there and it wasn't. Whose fault was that if it wasn't TVF. If you were really interested in the photo you could have done the same as I did. In fact I had already seen the OP on the BBC news website 5 hours earlier, saw the photo and read the text and passed on.

 

Your dont get it.  . Its not a joke. TV wants to be the best news source, that why this invester Got it from George and was in the statement, but you Can google it, its just 5 to 6 click away with you mouse

[Scott]

Just to clarify, there are legal reasons why articles are only posted from certain sources and not others.   If the picture was not available on that source, then it cannot be used.  

 

Members have greater flexibility in posting links.

 

A rather story and I hope they are soon reunited.  

 

[Boon Mee]

Re the situation that the old couple can't get medical attention unless separated - great example of the wonders of socialized medicine, eh? 

[billd766]

2 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Re the situation that the old couple can't get medical attention unless separated - great example of the wonders of socialized medicine, eh? 

 

Not really.

 

If every hospital, clinic, rest home were of an equal standard and all of them offered the same facilities do you think that they would all be low cost. If they were all high cost, how many people could afford to use them?

 

The home that the gentleman is going to actually does have a facility for his wife but not for several weeks and when it becomes available then she will join him.

 

I can understand her concern but there is a fairly simple fix for the costs and that is EVERY taxpayer pays perhaps 10 or 15% more in taxes to cover the cost of something that perhaps they may never use in their lifetime.

 

Would you be willing to do that?

[billd766]

3 hours ago, Scott said:

Just to clarify, there are legal reasons why articles are only posted from certain sources and not others.   If the picture was not available on that source, then it cannot be used.  

 

Members have greater flexibility in posting links.

 

A rather story and I hope they are soon reunited.  

 

 

Thank you for that information. I had not considered that point.

[billd766]

3 hours ago, carstenp said:

Nomits not a joke. 

 

Your dont get it.  . Its not a joke. TV wants to be the best news source, that why this invester Got it from George and was in the statement, but you Can google it, its just 5 to 6 click away with you mouse

 

Then they have a very long way to go to reach their goal.

[ilostmypassword]

14 hours ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

A bricklayer who couldn't find work because of a shortage of work after World War II? Gosh! Something fishy about that statement. 

 

Judging from the pictures I saw of Berlin after the war, I would think these guys would be working double overtime on Saturdays and Sundays.  

And pay these bricklayers with what?  You need an economy generating enough cash. And that took awhile just for Germany but all over the European theater of war. Even among the victors.

[billd766]

3 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

And pay these bricklayers with what?  You need an economy generating enough cash. And that took awhile just for Germany but all over the European theater of war. Even among the victors.

 

Some of the "currencies" just after the war in Germany were cigarettes, chocolate, food, nylons etc and with those it was possible to bargain for food etc.

[ilostmypassword]

1 minute ago, billd766 said:

 

Some of the "currencies" just after the war in Germany were cigarettes, chocolate, food, nylons etc and with those it was possible to bargain for food etc.

But that's just proof of how weak the German economy was after WW2. 

[Emster23]

3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Re the situation that the old couple can't get medical attention unless separated - great example of the wonders of socialized medicine, eh? 

Exactly. Under your candidate the couple would be left at home to rot with no care. But they'd be together, so it's all good.

[GOLDBUGGY]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

And pay these bricklayers with what?  You need an economy generating enough cash. And that took awhile just for Germany but all over the European theater of war. Even among the victors.

True the German Mark was cheaper than Wall Paper. But the Americans were there to and helped with rebuilding. They and Canada fared best after the war for obvious reasons. 

 

I don't know! It is not like he was a Doctor or Rocket Scientist where he could pack up and leave the runs of Europe, and then go to America for a better life. Just saying that as a Bricklayer his job would have been in very high demand then. What he got back for his labor is another story.

 

We do know they did not just leave things as there were, so somehow they found a way and the money. Or at least it was the last time I was in Berlin and Warsaw.  

[NancyL]

Yes, it's sad, but they're expecting an already overburdened gov't run system to accomodate their different care needs in the same facility.  In the original source article, it says that the family has turned down donations so that they could go into a private care facility that would be able to meet their needs.  Instead, the family want to highlight the "injustice" of the system.  Wouldn't it have been better to have set a little aside each month for long-term care insurance so they could have a nice private care facility for their final days.  It's great that the Canadian gov't is committed to providing a basic level of care to its senior citizens, apparently, but you can't expect them to supply five star service.  Unless, of course, as another poster pointed out, without substantial tax increases.  And I hear plenty of belly-aching from Canadians expats about their high tax burden, as it is.  

 

Instead, the family would like for the one with the lower care needs to join the one with the higher care needs in that facility and, in effect, keep someone on the wait list who really needs a high level of service from getting that service.

 

 

[billd766]

9 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

But that's just proof of how weak the German economy was after WW2. 

 

At the end of the war there WAS no German economy.

 

The country was in ruins, it was split in two, the Russians took their reparations by simply dismantling their part of occupied Germany and shipping it back to Russia. France

 

In 1948 the Marshall plan was instituted in Europe.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reparations_for_World_War_II

 

According to the Yalta Conference, no reparations to Allied countries would be paid in money. Instead, much of this value consisted of German industrial assets, as well as forced labour.[12]

Annexation of territories

Poland and the Soviet Union annexed the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse, leading to the expulsion of 12 million Germans. These territories were incorporated into Poland and the Soviet Union respectively and resettled with citizens of these countries.

France controlled the Saar protectorate from 1947 to 1956, with the intention of using its coal deposits and possibly annexing the region to France permanently. The same mines had been under French control from the end of the First World War until 1935. Following the results of a plebiscite, France had to relinquish its control of the Saar region on January 1, 1957, however it continued to extract coal from the area's mines until 1981.

The Netherlands annexed approximately 69 km2 of German territory in 1949, nearly all of which was given back to the West Germany Government in 1957. Under the Dutch-German treaty made in The Hague on 8 April 1960, West Germany agreed to pay to The Netherlands the sum of 280 million German marks in compensation for the return.

 

Try looking here to see what happened to Germany at the end of the war.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_plans_for_German_industry_after_World_War_II

[Opl]

And in the end all you ask for is to stick together with your loved one until you sleep away,  

You two go down the stairs,  no-one knows how long is left,

Live and enjoy everyday, don't ask for tomorrow,

You met your love, pain can't take it away

 

 

Edited August 30, 2016 by Opl