She’s 95. He’s 102. Their love still shines through the window of this British
Colombia Canada care home.
Hilda Duddridge made a promise to
her husband Lew Duddridge of nearly 75 years that they will stay together for
better or for worse and she won’t let neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor any
other problem in this life get in the way.
Hilda said “I’d look after him
until the day he died,”
When the husband moved into a
care home two years in his 100 birthday, the faithful wife kept her promise
with daily visits. After she says good-bye at night, she tells her husband
she’ll be back to see him the next day.
March, 16th, the care home banned
all visitors in a way to protect vulnerable seniors from COVID-19.
This new measurement has not
stopped Hilda from making the trip from their Langford condo to the care home
in Victoria to visit her partner.
She had to climb 18 steps to a
second-floor balcony, where she can see Lew from the window.
He feels happy when she shows him
his favourite chocolates, which she puts by the door for staff to collect when
she leaves.
“He was smiling and blew kisses,”
she said. “I couldn’t imagine how in the world I could not see him.”
According to Hilda, Love is what
really matters and everyone can be adaptable to new habits only for the sake of
their beloved ones.
“It just proves that we can get
through anything, if you have patience and look on the bright side,” she said,
adding, “Love is the answer to everything. Love makes the world go ’round.”
Hlida, the strong women learned
to be adaptable at a young age, as a bride, she had to move from Wales to a
small town in Canada far from her family and the ocean she adored, she knew
that she had to make a lot of sacrifices to be with the love of her life.
Their love story begins when they
first met on a train platform in October 1944 in England during an air raid and
a blackout.
Lew was a real gentleman and asked
to carry Hilda’s suitcase. She was impressed by his uniform. The next day they
went for a date, and proposed only after a week of their meeting.
The couple married a few months
later, before Lew was sent to Japan. When the war ended, Hilda boarded a boat
with their baby daughter and sailed to Canada to reunite with her husband.
She finally arrived at her new
home in Hanley, Saskatchewan, Where they only had an outdoor toilet, dirt roads
and no running water.
“It was a bit of a shock, but you
adapt. You make the best of it,” she said. “He made life exciting.”
Glenys Berry stated that “They’re
a team,”. She’s proud of her mother’s attitude that “love will keep us all
going,” and of her father for being the kind of person who gets things done.
Lew also had to adopt to a very
difficult situations in his life Like his wife. Only a year after he was born,
both of his parents caught the Spanish Flu and Lew was sent to live with an
uncle until they recovered.
Then, his family lost their house
during the Depression Then he decided to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force
and went to war to send some money to his family.
The family was hoping to set a
party to celebrate Hilda and Lew’s 75th wedding anniversary next week, but because
of the recent events, they decided to postpone it till hopefully this nightmare
will be over soon.
On this coming Thursday, Hilda
will climb the steps outside and go to the window to see the love of her life,
her soulmate and her partner even if separated by glass.
Hlida is sure that this hard time
will pass and it’s only temporary.
“Things will get better, if we’re
patient,” Hilda said. “It will be lovely again to go and see him.”
True love never dies…
A.F.R.A
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