State law kept a couple married for 63 years from living together. Now a new law is putting them back into the same home.

Gov. Linda Lingle signed a measure Wednesday that will allow 87-year-old Terry Kaide to move into the same residential care facility as her husband Sidney, 89.

"I'm so happy," said Terry Kaide, who cried with joy as she watched from her wheelchair while Lingle signed the bill. "I feel great because now we don't have to get permission to live together. We're free to move in."

The Big Island couple had become the unintended victims of rules that allow only two Medicaid clients and one private-pay client to be in the same residential care home.

The problem for the Kaides was they had their own private insurance. That forced them to live apart for two years.

The law allowing only one paying resident in each foster home was intended to ensure that most of the beds in such homes were available to low-income people on Medicaid.

The new law allows married couples, reciprocal beneficiaries, siblings, parents of a child or best friends to live together in the homes even if they aren't covered by Medicaid.

"My dad doesn't have much longer, and she at least wants to be with him," said daughter Annette Clay. "She's been very depressed and very lonely, and there wasn't much we could do to help her."

Following Terry Kaide's back surgery two years ago, she sought exemptions to the law from the governor, the government department that certifies the home and the attorney general.

Everyone wanted the Kaides to spend the rest of their lives together, but there was no reading of the law that would allow it. So the Kaides and their three daughters decided to persuade state legislators to change it.

While her father can't talk or walk and gets his food from a feeding tube, Terry Kaide said he squeezes her hand when she visits to show that he loves her and understands.

"It ends an injustice for one family and gives hope for other families that could find themselves in a similar situation," Lingle said at the bill's signing ceremony. "This is about real people and their lives together."

State officials said the third bed in the community care home, which is funded with state and federal government money, has been certified and Terry Kaide can move in immediately. Previously, the law prevented her from moving in even though only two people were living there.

She visited her husband every day, paying her caregiver $500 a month to drive her 10 miles from her home to the town of Papaikou, almost 10 miles away from her husband.

"Governor Lingle, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for allowing us to witness the signing of Senate Bill 190 into law to allow Mom to live with her husband happily ever after," said daughter Charlotte Kaide.