Sudbury sisters plea for parents to be placed together in long-term care

Sisters Linda Adler and Helga Leblanc's mother tells them she cries every night and worries about her husband.

Hildegard Adler, 88, has been in the hospital in Sudbury since she fell and broke her pelvis last August. She's waiting to be placed in a long-term care facility.

Her husband, Gottfried Adler, 91, lived at home until his health deteriorated and he was eventually placed in a long-term care home.

But all the family wants is for Gottfried and Hildegard to live together in the same long-term care facility.

"Here we are: he's there at Finlandia and she's at the hospital waiting," daughter Linda Alder said.

"It's difficult for them to understand what's going on."

She says both of her parents use wheelchairs and suffer from dementia.

'Vicious cycle'

After her mother broke her pelvis, she says her father's health started to deteriorate.

"He lost weight. He wasn't eating. He wasn't taking care of himself," she said.

"When you went over to visit, there was no conversation unless you initiated it."

He was able to be placed at Finlandia, but has been waiting for his wife to join him.

Late last week, the sisters made their story public, in an attempt to try and get their parents together.

"They just don't understand why they're apart," Leblanc said.

Leblanc says patients in a health crisis situation are being placed above her mother in the waitlist, bumping her lower on the list for placement.

"It's just a vicious cycle," Leblanc said.

She says her mother is number three on the waiting list to be placed with her husband. She says the family wants the province not to bump her for other patients, in hopes to place her faster.