Mount Pearl couple married 73 years separated by health-care system

The family of a couple separated by the health-care system after more than 70 years together is calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to reunite their parents for the remaining years of their lives.

John and Myrtle Legge are living in separate facilities because they require different levels of long-term care.

Their oldest son is asking the provincial government to adopt legislation that would keep couples together in long-term care, even if there's a great difference in the level of care each needs.

"It's not just my mom and dad. It's the many moms and dads in the province that are waiting for this to happen." Ron Legge told CBC News on Tuesday.

John, 94, and Myrtle, 93, have been married since 1949. John is from Heart's Delight, Trinity Bay, and Myrtle is from Newtown, Bonavista Bay, and they met in Gander, where she worked in the hospital and he worked at the military base, said Ron. They spent most of their lives in Mount Pearl, where they raised a family of seven children. 

For the last few years the Legges had lived together at the Meadow Creek Retirement Centre in Paradise, but that changed in January when there was an outbreak of COVID-19 at the facility.

Both contracted the virus and John became so ill that he was hospitalized. Both have recovered but John remains at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's and Myrtle has returned to Meadow Creek, a private home subsidized by Eastern Health, where she receives Level 2 care.

John's health has deteriorated and he now requires Level 3 care. He remains at the Health Sciences Centre, waiting for a bed at a long-term care facility that provides the care he needs, and the Legge family has no idea when he'll be moved.

"He's on a ward not knowing if he is ever going to get out of there," said Ron.

"I've seen him cry. I've seen him try to be strong when he can't be and it just rips the heart right out of us to see what he's going through. It must be just torture for my dad to be lying there wondering if he is ever going to see mom again."

Their family fears the couple will never live together again because people who need different levels of care are placed in different facilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, even if they're married. It meant the couple couldn't be together to celebrate their 73rd anniversary in February.

Ron Legge is calling on the province to change that.

"What I would really like to see is my dad placed in a long-term care facility, which is appropriate for what he needs right now, and for my mom to be able to move in there as well, and at least enjoy what years they have left together," he said.

Legge says separation is taking a toll on both his parents.