Bureaucracy has no heart. Worse, it has no brain. Most of us use humour in coping with the no-commonsense red tape craze that seems so apparent at most government levels. But when bureaucracy climbs into the beds of your loved ones, it's heart breaking.
an end of the most heart-rending kind came February 19 when al albo, 96, died less than two weeks after the death of the beloved Fanny, his wife of almost 70 years.
The only constant in each other's lives, the two were cruelly separated by a B.C. hospital. al and Fanny albo had been together for seven decades when last month they were both admitted to hospital in rural B.C. for different medical reasons.
Naturally, the couple that stayed together for a lifetime expected to be allowed to be together in the end.
In the tragedy that was to unwind after their hospital imposed separation, first Fanny, 91, was forcibly removed from the center of her very existence, her every day 96-year-old husband. It doesn't take too much imagination to understand how Fanny must have felt being shipped more than 100 kilometers away along a winding mountain road to a long-term care facility, where she was to die just 48 hours later.
an hour away from al would be an eternity to his wife.
Bewildered Fanny must have felt like a number when hospital staff rolled her into her husband's room, getting her name wrong and callously telling her, "Say goodbye to your husband, Mary" before shipping her off to the long-term care facility.
Fanny did say goodbye, and she said it in her own fashion.
So did the grieving al, who died less than two weeks later.
Not likely that the words of B.C. Health Minister George abbott, were any solace to the couples' family when he tried to express his condolences in the legislature.
Or could there have been much sympathy that abbott had to cancel plans for a European trip to deal with the fallout from the double tragedy that happened on his watch.
"I know this is again a very, very difficult new chapter of their lives that they'll be entering," he said, referring to the albos' loved ones.
"I know (the albo) qualities of patience, understanding courage will serve them well as they move forward with their lives."
Words, Mr. abbottt, words. It's too bad we don't see more understanding and courage from the politicians elected to serve us and less of those who would tell us when to get on with our lives.
This is not the first time governments have separated loving elderly couples. The Canadian federal government had to be lobbied to stop separating hospitalized war veterans and their wives in the same kind of bureaucratic bungling.
It is understandable that heartbroken people do not move forward with their lives just because some politician has subtly ordered it.
It is understandable, too, that the family in inconsolable now that a government inquiry into Fanny's death blamed bureaucratic errors and medical misjudgment for the fatal decision to move the 91-year-old–a decision that needlessly separated her from her husband.
Debra McPherson, president of the nurses' union, said government health policies are leading to early death and that the province "has moved into active euthanasia."
"If the health authority just wants to not spend the money on the care of seniors, then why don't they just be honest about it, rather than send them to an early death?" she asked.
For his part, abbott called these comments "irresponsible".
Meanwhile, death didn't separate al and Fanny albo. Government bungling did.
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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