Couple who battled to stay together in care home die 20 days apart

These were the words of 90-year-old Joyce Smith in November last year, as she pleaded with social services chiefs to allow her to move into the same residential care home as her 96-year-old husband Jim.

Her wish came true in January – but she was taken ill, suffering a massive stroke just four days after she moved into the home and before the couple had been reunited as Mr Smith was ill.

And now Dunkirk and D-Day veteran Mr Smith has also died at the Island Court care home in Dudley, just 20 days after the death of his wife.

Mrs Smith, who was admitted to Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley following a fall just before Christmas, was finally allowed to move into Island Court at the end of January. But within four days, she suffered a massive stroke and died on Feburary 10.

Mrs Smith's daughter Diane Fellows said: "I'm convinced it was down to all that stress, if they had listened to us in the first place, I honestly believe she would still be here."

Mrs Fellows, who is 63, said her own father died very young, and she had always considered Mr Smith to be like a father to her.

"They were a devoted couple, and it broke my mother's heart when they were apart," said Mrs Fellows, who lives in Gordon Avenue, Lanesfield, Wolverhampton. "She had gone to see him a couple of times in the home, but it was very difficult for her to get out, and she went downhill after that."

The couple's heartache began in August last year, when Mr Smith was admitted to Russells Hall after being taken ill with a kidney complaint.

When he was discharged after four weeks, social services ruled he was not fit to return to the flat he shared with his wife of nearly 44 years in Brunel Court, Wombourne, and he moved into Island Court in Bourne Street, Woodsetton, on September 4. However, because Mrs Smith's health was not judged serious enough to warrant full-time nursing care, she was told she would have to remain at the flat.

While staff at Island Court said they were prepared to allow Mrs Smith to move in with her husband, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership NHS Trust said her condition did not justify the £391-a-week care cost.

South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson had described the couple's predicament as a 'horrendous situation'.

The couple had both been widowed when they met at Diane's wedding on March 17, 1969, and they were married one year to the day later. Mrs Fellows said: "Jim was a friend of my husband's father, William. They had both worked for C D Noakes, they kept different branches." Mrs Smith had worked as an assistant at the former Owen Owen department centre in Wolverhampton before her retirement. Mr Smith's son Trevor, aged 69, from Waddens Brook Lane, Wednesfield, said his father was born in Atcham, Shropshire, and grew up on a farm in Bishop's Castle.

He left school aged 15, and took up a job as a carpet fitter, and later a van driver, with C D Noakes' furnishings, in Snow Hill. He stayed with the company for 50 years, later becoming manager of its store in School Street before his retirement in 1982.

Mr Smith's time with the company was interrupted when he was called up by the Army in 1939. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps, rising to the rank of sergeant, and he saw Africa and Germany, as well as taking part in the D-Day landings of 1944 and the evacuation at Dunkirk. He was awarded the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939-45 and the 1939-45 Star for his service.

Mr Smith's funeral yesterday coincided with what would have been the couple's 44th wedding anniversary. The service took place at Gornal Wood Crematorium