Heartbreaking Photo Shows Elderly Couple Crying After Being Moved to Separate Nursing Homes

A photo of an elderly couple is going viral for an absolutely heartbreaking reason.

The picture shows Wolfram and Anita Gottschalk huddled together crying and the story behind their emotional moment is breaking hearts across the country. It turns out the 83-year-old grandfather and 81-year-old grandmother have been placed in separate nursing homes after 62 years of marriage.

“This is the saddest photo I have ever taken,” Ashley Bartyik, the couple’s 29-year-old granddaughter wrote, explaining that the pair has been separated due to logistical problems in Canada’s health care system.

She and her family try to make sure the couple gets to see each other every other day, but after more than half a century of being together, even that is not enough.

“They’re heartbroken, they cry every time they see each other,” Bartyik told ABC News. “In addition to the dementia, we recently learned my grandfather also has cancer now. My grandma needs to be able to spend these last few days with him, not worried about when the next time she’ll see him is.”

Bartyik and her families continue to fight to get them placed together, but there is currently no available space.

“They’ve been together since they got married in 1954,” she said. “They’re completely infatuated with each other and have been together in sickness and health. They deserve to stay together.”