There is nothing as sweet as seeing two elderly people who are still in love with each other…But a love triangle between octogenarians will only end in tears…

I work in a hospital nursing elderly patients,and I love my job. I have met some pretty interesting people who have lead colourful lives; However, when presented with a frail old lady, or man, who are reliant on you and other members of staff to look after them, it can be easy to forget that they can become quite feisty at times!

The man in question is a six foot, ex boxer who has been an inpatient for quite some time. All of the staff are fond of this gent, and he loves to get involved in life on the ward. He enjoys walking up and down the corridor, checking on what we are doing, coming, into our staff office, where he likes to sit with us whilst we are writing notes, and generally looking out for patients and staff alike (he once was a hospital porter, and old habits die hard)

On one of his travels along the corridor, he encountered a new female arrival. She is around 5ft tall, with longish grey hair, and for him it was love at first sight.

She also liked to walk up and down the corridor, but she used a zimmer frame to help her get about. He decided to introduce himself and from then on they became inseparable. The two of them decided that they would share the frame between them,as they hobbled unevenly along, and given the height difference, their unsteadiness, and narrow corridor, they were gently discouraged from continuing this practice, by a member of staff, which they took with good grace.

This didn’t deter their new found attraction for each other though, and they sat in the corridor together chatting whenever they could.He was very solicitous of her and tried to haul her up out of the chair whenever she wanted to go for another little walk, and she in turn, would gaze adoringly at him. However, things were becoming a little difficult, as being a mixed ward, the males and females were in separate bays, and these two wanted to visit each other whenever they wanted.

Added to that, there was a little complication of the man’s wife! She would come to visit him every day, and he was always pleased to see her. That was until he had met his new lady friend. At first the wife thought it was sweet that he wanted to talk to this other patient, but after a while, she was distraught at his new indifference to her, and ended up in tears.

I wanted to share this story with you, as elderly people’s emotions are so often overlooked. It was so touching to see that this man’s wife still loved him so much after all their years together, and she cared enough about him to feel a stab of jealousy when he showed too much attention to the other lady.

It was enchanting at first to see these patients developing a friendship; both of them finding something in each other that formed an instant bond between them, but I did feel sorry for the poor, neglected wife!