Screen Grab from Facebook/SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity
“Till death do us part” is a marriage vow thrown around lightly these days, yet one British couple remained true to theirs. Wilf and Vera Russell lived together for 71 years and both passed away recently almost simultaneously.
The childhood sweethearts, aged 93 and 91 respectively, died just four minutes apart while in separate healthcare facilities over the weekend.
Mashable reports that Wilf, a World War II veteran, was taken to a care home in Wigston, Leicestershire, England, last year after being diagnosed with dementia.
Due to his sporadic memory, he eventually could not recognize his own wife, which led to her declining health as well, their granddaughter Stephanie Welch recalled.
At 6:50 a.m. on March 9, Wilf succumbed to his illness, while Vera passed on t 6:54 a.m. in a facility just three miles from his husband’s. She died not knowing of her spouse’s demise, the report said.
Welch, who was at Vera’s bedside prior to her death, shared her grandmother’s final moments.
“The last thing she said to me was: ‘We’re a right pair, aren’t we?’” she recalled. “I think she was waiting for him to go. She was broken-hearted.”
The Rusells’ tragic story, meanwhile, is eerily similar to the novel-turned-movie “The Notebook.” The pair got engaged when Wilf was just 18 and Vera was 16, and were married on Sept. 5, 1945. Khristian Ibarrola /ra
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