A Nova Scotia couple separated because of differing health needs were overjoyed to hear they’d be together again in the same building.
Theresa and Edgar MacPhee have been married for 62 years, but had to spend the last eight months apart because Edgar’s health needs were too great. Theresa, 90, lived in Glen Haven Manor in New Glasgow, while Edgar, 85, lived in an Antigonish hospital 60 kilometres away.
The couple and their family told their story to CTV News in August to see if anything could be done.
Health Minister Leo Glavine asked for a health assessment to be conducted on Edgar.
The review found he could move from residential care to long-term care.
“I thought that was great. The best news I ever heard for a long time,” said Edgar.
The new arrangement will have the couple living under the same roof, only a few hundred metres apart. But they both say sometimes a few hundred metres is too far for their liking.
“I hope to get back in the same room,” said Edgar. “We'd be together so we could, we wouldn't be so far apart as it is.”
“The nurses are very good here and they bring my father to my mom or my mom to my dad, and they also let them eat their meals together. So it's great,” said daughter Linda Richard.
The couple is looking forward to making up for lost time.
“That’s the time you need somebody - when you get old,” said Theresa.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh.
