KELOWNA — After 69 years of marriage, it’s a situation no loving couple would ever want to face: forced to live apart in different cities.
But that’s what an Okanagan couple is enduring because of failing health and what their family says is failed efforts by Interior Health to re-unite the husband and wife.
Elsie Huston, 86, lives in a care home in Kelowna. Don Huston, 93, is at a care home about 100 kilometres away in Oliver.
“I sure do miss him.” says Elsie. “And he misses me. Keeps telling me he’s not very happy.”
Living in Summerland, the couple was separated in June when Elsie could no longer properly care for her ailing husband. He went to the Penticton hospital and then to the Oliver care home.
Their daughter, Joan Wood, says Interior Health vowed to reunite the couple in a month or two, but three months later, Don is still on the waiting list for a care home in Kelowna.
Interior Health spokesperson, Bryan Redford, says the agency is committed to keeping couples together.
“I’m happy to report Mr. Huston is at the top of the list in terms of the facility we’ve got him on a wait list for. It’s just a question of when a bed becomes available so we’re hoping that will be soon. I realize the family wants that to happen as quick as it can and we’re committed to that as well.”
That day can’t come quick enough for the Hustons.
“It’s not right at all,” says Elsie.
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