Though he and his wife survived the Dec. 11, 2008, ice storm, the anniversary of the storm Friday was bittersweet for Albert Sylvestre, 91, of Rindge.

Imagine being married for 61 years and waking up one day to find your spouse can no longer talk or connect with you because of Alzheimer’s disease. What was worse for Sylvestre was the day he realized he could no longer care for his wife himself. During a visit Friday with his wife, Eileen, 88, at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Jaffrey, Sylvestre reflects upon the circumstances of her admittance a year ago.

“It was kind of the ice storm that did me in. After three days, I couldn’t do it anymore. I called the doctor and made arrangements for her to come here,” Sylvestre says, sitting next to Eileen in her private room at Good Shepherd.

Since 2003, when Eileen was diagnosed as having dementia, Sylvestre had been tending to her in their home in Rindge with some help from caregivers. Her care was his number one priority, but the storm that knocked out the electricity in the region for weeks last winter made the work all the more difficult.

“When I got up, I was devastated because there was no heat, no electricity, no water. I didn’t know what to do,” he recalls about the morning of Dec. 12, a Friday.

A tree was blocking the entrance to the home, but neighbors came over with hot food, offering their help, he says, which eased his worry. On Saturday, though, things began to go downhill again. Sylvestre had three propane stoves going to keep the house warm and bundled Eileen up in blankets, but the house was still cold.

“I couldn’t lift her and I couldn’t take her to the bathroom, so I had to call Rindge Fire and Rescue.”

Sunday was just as difficult and ended with another call to the Fire Department followed by another one on Monday at 4 a.m.

“So when daylight came, I called up Dr. [Elizabeth] Cooley and she made arrangements to bring her here. That was the final straw that made me understand.”

What’s important is that Eileen is comfortable, not whether or not she’s at home, he says.

“I’ll do anything, anything at all, to make her life as pleasant as possible, right honey,” Sylvestre says, addressing Eileen.

Eileen doesn’t answer. Sometimes, though, she looks over at him and calls him by his nickname, “Alby.” Once when Sylvestre stood up during the interview, she says, “Alby, don’t leave.”

Sylvestre says he takes some comfort from her ability to recognize him, but it breaks his heart not being able to reach her.

“We’ve been friends, lovers — call it what you want — for over 70 years and only this moment counts, don’t you think?”

Sylvestre, who was on the Gardner High School track team, saw Eileen for the first time in 1936 at a track meet in Baldwinsville, Mass. In 1939, he met and spoke with her for the first time when they worked in stores next door to each other in Gardner.

“We were friends from the beginning,” he says.

In 1941, Sylvestre voluntarily joined the U.S. Army. “I had a very low number and it was only a matter of time before I got drafted.”

Eileen was a camp follower, he says, and followed him around the country wherever he was stationed. “I would get quarters for her. She lived with me in Rhode Island, Mississippi and Maine.”

The couple married in Otter River, Mass., in 1943. They had been married a little over a year, when Sylvestre’s company, the 9th Army, was sent to fight the Germans in Europe. “I was in artillery, heavy artillery and we were in England, France, Belgium and Germany.”

“Time is a thief and age prepares you. When I was in the Army, I was afraid of getting killed or shot, but that’s not the worse thing that can happen to you,” he said, noting that being maimed for life would have been worse.

When he returned home after the war had ended, he and Eileen settled in Ashburnham, Mass. Sylvestre traveled for work representing furniture manufacturers. Eileen, an artist, worked as a library assistant until she retired in 1985, the year they moved to Rindge. Sylvestre retired in 1994.

“I think our relationship was deep-rooted and beyond the conditions Eileen is in now, right Eileen?” Sylvestre asks. “Life is not about yourself. It’s about who you are with and who you mean something to.”

Sylvestre says he is grateful Eileen isn’t in any pain.

“She has almost no medications, but she doesn’t know this,” he says. “The victim is not the person who has Alzheimer’s. It’s her caregivers and family.”

He says Eileen is better off at Good Shepherd, where she has more interactions with people. He’s decorated her room with paintings and needlepoint work she did herself and she’s adjusted very well to the move.

“I come almost everyday for a couple to three hours. But, I have arthritis very badly and sometimes it really is work, but I guess it really isn’t,” he says, looking at Eileen. “Love comes first, huh honey.”

The couple’s 67th anniversary is on Feb. 15.