Walsall couple reunited after a year apart.
John and Betty Chaplin are back together again at Highgate care home after a year apart.
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00:00We were, actually we'd just ordered a double bed for the lounge because of, I was suffering then from one or two illnesses and that.
00:11But they said that I was, the two carers arrived at that, this was a Saturday morning I think,
00:20and they said that we're sorry but in view of the seriousness of your illness we're going to have to take you into the hospital.
00:30And so they'd already ordered the ambulance so I had no time to pack anything.
00:37These are all odds and ends but, and so I came into the, not this hospital but the first one,
00:44with just a dressing gown, a pair of trousers and some of the clothes and that was all.
00:50They didn't give me time to pack anything, you know, or look for things like necessary items and that was the start of it.
01:01Then I've been to about two or three others for various reasons.
01:06And during this time my wife was also, she, they told her that she'd got dementia and it was probably necessary for her to go to another hospital.
01:22So she ended up in a dementia hospital which I can't recall the name of.
01:27It's not far from here, it's about five miles from here.
01:31And then it was 12, I think it was almost 12 months or thereabouts before we saw each other again.
01:39Until I was, I arranged a visit to their hospital with the kind, you know, kind help of the hospital authorities here.
01:53And that was the first time I'd seen her in almost 12 months.
01:59So she's been here now for five, about five or six days, something like that.
02:05But anyway, that's a rough outline of the story.
02:11But it's a long time to be separated.
02:15I mean, I've still got bits and pieces of an illness which affects the skin, you know, it's kind of that sort of thing there, see.
02:28And so until that is cleared, we are having treatment for it, then I don't know what's going to happen then.
02:40That's an unknown future.