After 67 Years of Marriage, Calif. Couple Dies Holding Hands

Floyd and Violet Hartwig were married 67 years: living, working and now dying side by side.

The couple had known each other since they were children, growing up in the Central California farming community of Easton, near Fresno. Their romance blossomed when he returned for leave from the Navy, and as ABC News reports, they remained committed to one another until the very end.

While he was away, Floyd wrote Violet dozens of love letters, which the family has saved, according to the Huffington Post.

They married in August 1947. Then, on Feb. 11, they both died, at home with each other, ABC reports.

“We pushed their hospital beds together, and put their hands together,” their daughter Donna Scharton told the Fresno Bee in the video interview below. “And my dad died holding her hand, and then mom died five hours later.”

“We felt blessed, because we knew that’s what they wanted,” she said. “It was meant to be, and that’s the only way it could end.”

Read the full story on ABC News here.

(Image via thefresnobee YouTube screenshots)