Couple's Christchurch quake split ends

Paula and Bill McDaniel are delighted to be together again. Photo / Simon Baker

After three months battling loneliness and medical scares from being separated by the Christchurch earthquake, a wheelchair-bound pensioner has been reunited with her 78-year-old husband.

Paula McDaniel, who was sent alone to an Auckland rest home in the days following the February disaster, returned to Christchurch this week with help from medical authorities.

Crippled by a long-term illness, she can barely form words or push her wheelchair to the toilet, but in Auckland Mrs McDaniel returned every day to a Pakuranga pub, carrying on a routine that began when her husband, Bill, was able to make a brief visit.

Mr McDaniel managed to see her for three weeks in April when he found temporary accommodation at a nearby rest home, and they spent their time at Ye Olde Baileys, sipping tea and the odd pint.

He was forced to rush back again this month when Mrs McDaniel fell ill with pneumonia.

The rest of the time, the couple phoned each other twice a day - but in the end being apart was too hard.

"It was impossible over the phone. All she could say was, 'Bill, Bill, where are you?' It was mind-destroying - you don't know how bad. She can't hear you, you can't hear her," Mr McDaniel said.

"You feel like you're split down the middle of your mind."

The family had been told that there would not be enough room at Christchurch medical facilities to accommodate Mrs McDaniel, who needs fulltime care, for six months until more services were available.

Their daughter in New Plymouth tried to bring her to Taranaki, but authorities concluded that Mrs McDaniel was too unwell to be moved twice - and within days a direct transfer to Christchurch was arranged.

"It's good to get her back. I can't even explain it," Mr McDaniel said after meeting his wife at the airport.

Mrs McDaniel is now in a rest home in east Christchurch, close to Mr McDaniel's house.

"It's great. Really. I might bring her back home today for one evening," he said."She can't actually explain it properly because of her condition, but you can see she's content."

Mrs McDaniel was comfortable at her new lodgings and her medical complications had seemed to settle down.

Yesterday, Mr McDaniel took his wife on a tour around Christchurch to see the city's devastation for the first time since February, when she was driven away in a convoy - with Mr McDaniel in a desperate chase behind - and flown away without even knowing where she was headed.

It took Mr McDaniel three days to find where she had been sent.

Spending time together again in their hometown was unbelievable, Mr McDaniel said.

"I've taken her everywhere, and she can't believe all the places that have been shut down."