Elderly Couple Died Holding Hands Together After 67 Years of Marriage

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While some see marriage and divorce as “part and parcel” of the married life, there are many others who honor the vows that bond them together. Just like this elderly couple who held on close to each other till their last breath.

This elderly couple had the will to live on because they didn’t want to leave each other alone. They finally died together while holding hands on Feb. 11, 2015, after spending 67 years of married life together, surrounded by family members of four generations.

Floyd and Violet Hartwig, from Fresno, California, had known each other since they were in grammar school. As per CBC News, love sparked between the two at a local dance hall when Floyd, a navy sailor at that time, was home on leave. The two then got married on Aug. 16, 1947.

After a few years, Floyd came back home for good and the couple raised their three children together. “My dad was in the Navy for six years,” their daughter, Donna Scharton, told ABC News. “He worked for the J.B. Hill Company delivering eggs and then for a feed company. Mom stayed home, helped take care of the ranch, and cooked all the meals. She made breakfast for dad at 4:30 in the morning every day.”

“They weren’t fancy. They were just decent people that were always committed to each other, no matter the situation,” Scharton further added.

Scharton said her mother, Violet, had dementia for a few years before her death and her health condition kept declining. One day, she got a call from her father’s doctor telling her that he had kidney failure and had only two weeks to live. The family then decided to put them in hospice together.

Even when Floyd’s condition was deteriorating and he was in severe pain, he would ask the doctor to take care of his wife and make sure she was “fixed.”

The elderly couple’s family members gathered together in the hospital on the day the couple passed away. When they noticed that Floyd was in intense pain and knew his time was less, they pushed the elderly couple’s hospital beds together and put their hands together.

The 90-year-old Floyd died holding his wife’s hand, and 89-year-old Violet followed her beloved husband five hours later.

One of their granddaughters, Cynthia Letson told CBC News that they told their grandmother that Floyd was waiting for her and she could go too after he had passed away.

Floyd and Violet passed away with their family surrounding them.

Recalling her parents’ lifestyle and simplicity, Scharton said, “They never ever asked for anything. All they ever wanted was their family, and it was amazing that they got that in the end.”

“What we felt kept them alive was the will to live, and that they didn’t want to let go of each other,” she added.

Alluding to the beautiful bond the couple shared, Letson shared, “It would be nice if the world got back to the core of marriage.”

She further added: “I don’t think people realize that anymore. They need to go back to the basics that marriage is forever.”

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