by Judi McLeod
March 8, 2004
across town is a long way away when you’re in a wheelchair and your husband’s in another nursing home.
as a dashing young soldier, Ted Beament was serving with the Royal Canadian artillery, a Canadian brigadier who helped plan the D-Day invasion of Europe. To his wife Brenda, he’s still that dashing young soldier of long ago pictures, and always will be.
Difficult to imagine how "the system" could force apart, even for a few months, a loving couple after 63 long and faithful years.
The story of Ted and Brenda Beament, who wed in England in 1941, was until intervention, a heartbreaker.
That’s because it was a story where every precious moment counted. Ted, you see, is 95 and Brenda 90.
Restrictions on nursing home space had forced the couple to live apart. after a lifetime together, the couple was only able to meet two or three times a week.
Brenda, who survived a lifetime of struggle, was alone and crying for her husband.
Take the word of her daughter, Meriel Bradford, who told the National Post’s Maria Cook that the emotional toll on both parents worried everyone who knows them.
"They hold hands and talk. My father keeps asking, `When do you think she’s coming?’ Is she alright? What can I do?’
"My mom is very weepy, and my dad is distressed. The forced separation is affecting them both mentally and physically to their detriment."
Mercifully, publicity saw the couple reunited when a bed was found for Brenda.
The love story of the Beaments is not the stuff of the silver screen. It’s everyday love, scrapbook style, that comes complete with a Christmas Eve first meeting and a wedding dress fashioned from curtains.
Ted proposed to what was to be his lifelong bride the day after he met Brenda, a 27-year-old music teacher.
Money was hard pressed during wartime and a friend told the bride to be, "I have curtains and we can make you a dress."
They married on Feb. 22, 1941. Less than a year later their son, Justin, was born and then came the birth of their daughter, Meriel, in 1944.
Like most young couples starting out, the Beaments looked forward to a new life in Canada, having been delivered here aboard the Queen Mary, a troop ship distinguished by war brides and babies.
Theirs was a kind of love that kept them hanging together through everything life could serve up. a president of the Canadian Bar association, Ted helped set up the Ontario Legal aid program. It is a testament to his staying power that he continued to go daily to the offices of Beament Green, where he practiced law right up to age 91.
More moving than any Hollywood film is the fate of the couple when they were forced to live apart.
Ted, whose speech has been affected by several small strokes, telephoned his wife five times a day. "I don’t speak well, and she doesn’t hear well," he told Maria Cook. "She understands me very little, but she’s glad to hear my voice. The present situation is very bad. I miss her."
Sadly, the Beaments are not the only loving couple separated by fate. There are at least 12 such cases across Canada and that’s 12 too many.
Cliff Chadderton, chief executive officer of the War amps, launched a $70,000 national campaign to uncover other such cases involving veterans and put them before a parliamentary committee.
One can readily identify with Chadderton’s passion when he says: "For God’s sake, get them together."
Chadderton, incidentally is putting the money up for the campaign from his own personal charitable foundation, and not the War amps.
Standing in the way is that the long-term care system does not automatically place married couples together.
Ted and Brenda Beament are together again.
Their daughter Meriel put it best when she said, "Love conquers all."
Meanwhile what about other couples who still remain apart?
If you can help, don’t let another day go by without contacting Cliff Chadderton of War amps at customerservice@waramps.ca or call 1-800-250-3030, (416) 297-2660
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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