An elderly couple from Fort Worth, Texas reportedly died within 50 minutes of each other while holding hands as each of them succumbed to complications from COVID-19.
Fox News reported that Curtis Tarpley, 79 and his wife Betty, 80, both passed away at the Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital after being married for 53 years.
They left behind two children, Tim and Tricia, who said they knew their parents were about to pass on in the days leading up to their deaths.
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Both Curtis and Betty had underlying health conditions which did not improve while they got treatment for coronavirus, and each of them was prepared mentally to go.
“My mother always said she didn’t want to live to be 100 and she very much believed this world was temporary, and it was a stop on going off to a better place,” Tricia explained.
“She knew something better was coming and she was fine with that.”
When Curtis and Betty each took a turn for the worse, the hospital moved them to the same room so they could be together.
“They have a very typical relationship,” Tim said of his parents.
“I think with people from that era, it doesn’t matter how happy you were or weren’t, you made it work.”
After they died, Tim heard stories about his parents that he had never heard before.
“A friend of mine, I don’t even know the situation honestly, but I guess he was homeless and living in his car and my mom would let him shower and sleep on the couch and she would make him food to eat in the car,” he said as he held back tears.
“I had no idea.”
Tricia told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that their bodies will be donated to the University of North Texas Health Science Center for research purposes.
In the end, she is relieved that they died together.
“I don’t know how one would have survived without the other,” she said.
“I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘I’m so sorry you lost them both,’ but I almost think it would have hurt worse. They’re together. Neither one of them had to grieve for the other one. For them it was perfect.”
This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.
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