Couples thrive at Woodland Villa
Thursday January 24, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
When Nick Huttinga’s wife Nellie moved into Woodland Villa, she missed her husband and he missed her. So, shortly after Nellie moved into Woodland Villa, Nick decided to move into the Long Sault long-term care so he could be with his wife.

“I really like it — we both like it here,” says Nick, when asked how he has enjoyed the past 15 months at Woodland. “We’ve got a private room here, we are free and we’ve got a car here so we can go out whenever we want.”

The Huttingas are one of about five couples living at the home. Debbie Kitchen, Woodland’s director of care, notes that the couple is always on the go.

“They go out shopping together, they come and go. It’s like being in a hotel for them and they love it,” she says.

In her experience, Kitchen says most couples who have lived in the home over the years didn’t move in together. One spouse typically moves into the home and their partner eventually follows suit.

And the partner who follows their spouse into the home isn’t always there because they need long-term care. Often, one partner just finds the transition process easier with their spouse living with them.

In the case of another couple, the wife moved into the home after she had a stroke and her husband could no longer give her the care she needed. Her husband remained in the retirement home where they had been living and their son would bring him to Woodland every day to visit his wife.

Eventually, he decided to move into Woodland to be closer to his wife.

“He’s in perfect health and he opted to move in,” says Kitchen. “They’ve been together for 50 years and I think it’s wonderful that you can keep (couples) in the same home.”

Kitchen attributes the higher-than-average ratio of couples living at Woodland Villa to the home’s rural location. Many of the couples who have lived at the home have been from farming families, she points out. Since farming families work together, they become used to a certain structure in their lives.

“They were always up at the crack of dawn and that whole routine is lost on them without each other,” Kitchen says.