A Couple might very well be forced to live apart after 60 years of marriage because there is not enough room at a care home for both of them. Thomas and Iris Bashford should be looking forward to marking 60 years with their diamond wedding anniversary but social services officials have given the couple devastating news that they could be living apart by the time their anniversary comes around later this year. The couple fell in love during the Second World War and have been together ever since.

Thomas who is an 82-year-old war veteran, may be moved to a care home after he comes out of hospital while his 81-year-old wife Iris who is blind and dependent on him, will remain in the couple’s sheltered housing.

Thomas said that “I never thought I would see the day when I was separated from my wife. We have both worked our whole life, paying into the system, and I am not happy that we are being treated like this.” Iris said that “I don’t want to be without him - I am very upset and angry. Things would have been different years ago. Old people used to be treated differently.”

Iris and Thomas face being split up after council chiefs decided they cannot be cared for at the same residential home. Their only child Lynne Kotchie, was horrified when she was told the pair may have to live apart. She said that “It was suggested dad could go to a home but funding would not be available for mum. If they have to split up, it will be like having a limb cut off for them. They just won’t survive without each other. I don’t know how mum is expected to get by without dad - he is her eyes and she can barely move about at home without feeling her way around the furniture. Very soon there will be many, many couples in the same situation because people are living longer.”

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has urged councils to build more sheltered accommodation for couples.

I think this is a really sad story and I hope that they do get to stay together. Maybe the government should start building care homes that have double rooms so that they can accommodate for couples and not just single people.

Many years ago there was a baby boom and we can all see that there a number of care homes and sheltered housing being built around us at the moment but are they building them to accommodate a couple that’s the question.

What do you think?

Click the link below and watch the video of Iris talking about how she feels
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