Colorado WWII paratrooper dies after brief reunion with wife
PUEBLO, Colo. -- A World War II paratrooper from Colorado who was initially denied permission to move into the same nursing home as his wife has passed away after a brief reunion.
Elmer Melchi, who had cancer, died in a hospice care center in Pueblo on Thursday, a week after June Melchi, who has dementia, was brought to visit him there. He was 92.
After Elmer Melchi's health worsened on New Year's Eve, the Veterans Administration denied the family's request to allow him to spend his final days with his wife in the nursing home because it wasn't a VA-sanctioned facility.
The Pueblo Chieftain reported the VA later gave permission, but Elmer Melchi's son says his health never improved enough to allow him to move.
"My dad went for his last jump," a tearful Garry Melchi, one of three sons and an Army veteran himself, told the newspaper. "He told me today, 'I'm going.'"
Garry Melchi said the battle to get his father moved was worth it, even if his father was too ill to be moved.
"Hopefully, this won't happen to the next guy," he said.
The couple met in England and married in 1945.