Couple married for 67 years die together holding hands
After 67 years of marriage, Floyd, 90, and Violet, 89, passed away on February 11 at their home in Easton, California.
The Hartwigs couldn’t communicate through words that day but their hospital beds were pushed together so they could hold each other’s hands. As the couple lay side-by-side, family members noticed their breathing was often synchronised.
“I think that’s what kept them going… that they each had the other one,” the Hartwigs’ daughter Donna Scharton told Fresno Bee. “They didn’t want to go without each other.”
And they didn’t. Floyd, who had been battling cancer and recent kidney failure, passed away first still holding his wife’s hand. Violet, who suffered from dementia and was losing weight fast, died five hours later.
"We felt blessed because we knew that's what they wanted," their daughter Donna Scharton said.
The Hartwigs first met in elementary school and began dating in the 1940s while Floyd was on leave from the Navy during World War II. They kept in touch through love letters and married in 1947. They had three children.
"You had a sense that they had a connection, and I think that connection just came more and more and especially in the last months of their lives," said Donna.
"When we went to the funeral home and saw the two caskets, it was meant to be," she said. "And that's the only way it could end."
Image credit: The Fresno Bee
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