Share His doting wife Patti, who has been married to Bert for 47 years, went on to discuss why he decided to make the difficult decision to remove his limb. 'He has so much to live for he will do his utmost to make this work,' Patti said. Road to recovery: On Wednesday, Bert was pictured for the first time since his surgery after Patti shared a sweet image of him alongside youngest grandchild Alby while lying in a hospital bed 'We have been together for over 50 years and you just want to get as much out of it (life) as you can in the latter years.'