Post by Joanna on Nov 20, 2014 19:31:24 GMT -5
Elderly soulmates die within minutes of each other
DERBY, Derbyshire, U.K. – A devoted English couple died just 10 minutes apart after a 65-year romance that started in their teen years.
In their final days, Harry and Mavis Stevenson had been living at St. Werburgh's House Care Home in Derby because she had fallen ill and they could not bear to be apart.
Family members weren’t surprised when Mavis passed away November 3 at the age of 89, but were shocked when her 88-year-old husband – who was in good health – shed a few tears and died by her side just minutes later. “Their love lasted and they were devoted to each other. I can imagine them being together now, after their death, side by side,” said the couple’s nephew Stephen Cresswell, 63.
Harry and Mavis met at the Asterdale social club before Harry joined the Royal Marines in 1943. He stormed the beach at Normandy on D-Day to help liberate continental Europe and was shot in the hand while battling the Japanese in the Pacific theater. But perhaps the most significant pain was being apart from Mavis, who was waiting for him back in the United Kingdom.
Cresswell thinks his uncle’s service in World War II made their bond much deeper. “Their romance and their love kept them together during those years. When there is absence, then the heart grows stronger,” Cresswell said.
Harry and Mavis got married (above) after he returned home and tried to minimize their time apart as much as possible – even after she became ill later in life.
Cresswell said the nurses told Harry his wife had died, then they walked out of the room, only to find him dead minutes later. They were, he said, "soulmates."
Source: The Daily Telegraph, November 11, 2014.
