Couple Married 6 Decades Die Hours Apart

You may want to break out the tissues before you read on. There are love stories and then there are love stories, and such is the tale of Richard and Nancy Trimmer, who were married 61 years—and died last Sunday, within 12 hours of each other. The Evening Sun reports that the Pennsylvania couple learned that 81-year-old Richard had lung cancer in November; he was given six months. After a fall, he was taken to York Hospital, and his wife didn't react well.

"She didn't want to be in the house without him," explains the couple's daughter-in-law. "It was all just getting too hard, so God took care of it." Nancy was soon hospitalized in a separate location for lingering issues from a 10-year-old heart surgery. At 12:25am Sunday, she died. When the family arrived at Richard's bedside to break the bad news, they discovered him in far worse condition—and the clock in his room stuck at 12:25. His family stayed with him as he repeatedly said, "Pull me up." And then, "Hold me tighter now." And then he was gone. (More marriage stories.)