Another elderly couple in Nova Scotia says they have been separated after decades of marriage, because of differing in-home care needs.

Etienne and Delima Sampson have been married for 63 years. Delima lives in a nursing home in Antigonish, while Etienne is in a home in Cape Breton – more than an hour away.  

Etienne says he would do anything to be with his wife.         

"It makes me feel as though I'm abandoning her,” he said. “That's how it makes me feel."            

About a year ago, Delima came down with a form of dementia that took away her ability to speak.

Two of the couple's daughters, Marcia and Karen Sampson, live near their father in Louisdale, N.S. They drive him to visit his wife about once a week.

"But then when it's time to leave, we watch the gut-wrenching departure,” said Marcia. “The goodbye, the tears. It's awful."

The sisters have been trying to get their parents into a nursing home together for the past four years, but their requests have been denied.

"My mom is at the R.K. (MacDonald Nursing Home) in Antigonish all by herself,” said Karen. “She's terrified. She can't speak to start with. They need to be together, they deserve it."

A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Health Authority says they know how important it is for couples to be together, and when both of their care needs can be met in the same facility, they provide options to families to try to make it happen.

The spokesperson says there are times when couples are separated due to different care needs, and that some facilities have longer wait lists.

"The way the system of adult protection is working here, it's really clogging up the works," said Karen.

While they waited, the couple missed Etienne's 92nd birthday last week, their latest wedding anniversary, and have separately grieved the death of a grandson.

"My greatest fear is that I'll get a call from the R.K. that says my mom is dead, and I'll have to come home and tell him that he missed it. That she died without him there. I think that's his biggest fear, as well," Karen said.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.