Wolf and Anita Gottschalk of Surrey, B.C. were being forced to live apart because of a lack of space at the same care home after living together for six decades of marriage.. That’s when the family’s desperation led their granddaughter, Ashley Bartyik, to post the image of them on Facebook, where it was eventually shared more than 10,000 times.
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The couple’s granddaughter Ashley Bartiyik shared the news on Facebook a month after her initial post drew attention to the story.
The couple, who have been married for 62 years, met as teenagers when their families lived in the same apartment block in Dusseldorf, Germany.
They appear overcome with emotion and share a kiss, ecstatic to be back in each other’s arms.
“Thursday, our family joyfully witnessed the reunification of Wolfram and Anita Gottschalk”, the statement read.
Every other day for months, Wolfram and Anita Gottschalk cried when they were separated and returned to the senior living facilities in which they’d been forced to reside apart.
Ashley wrote on Facebook: ‘The reunion saw tears of joy for all involved.
Wolfram, 83, suffers from dementia and after experiencing congestive heart failure in January, he was moved to the Yale Road Centre residential care facility. Tasleem Juma, a spokeswoman for Fraser Health (the health authority which runs the facility Wolfram has moved into) had said last month that work would be done to cater both Anita’s and Wolfram’s care needs, and that Wolfram needed more care than his wife.
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Anita can be heard telling her husband: ‘Look at me, look at me.
