Letter: Disabled need real 'labour of love' care
I read the article 'Whatever happened to good old family values', by Nigel Hastilow in the Star with a mixture of sadness, and anger that we can treat our elderly people with such a lack of compassion.
My late wife Edna was confined to a wheelchair with MS for more than 30 years and we were very happily married for 25 years until she passed away on December 5, 2009. Edna was only 70 when she died, but that is quite a good age for someone with MS, who was virtually an invalid for years.
I washed, fed, and cared for Edna and I only had two weeks respite care in 25 years, not counting the time she spent in hospital, and that was when a community nurse persuaded me, very reluctantly, to put Edna in care for two weeks in February 2004, when I had a bout of serious depression.
I was not at all pleased with the care she received, and I told her I would never put her in care again, and I kept my promise.
I was Edna's sole carer for 19 years until I had a slipped disc in 2003, and I was in excruciating pain from sciatica, and had no option but to hire carers.
We only had two carers for 1.5 hours daily, getting Edna up and putting her to bed, but I still took care of her personal needs. A community nurse said to me "very few men would do what you do for your wife", I said "you could call it my duty, but I prefer to call it a labour of love".
Ray Williams, Shifnal
