Couple married 72 years die holding hands
It's a love story for the ages. An Iowa couple has died holding hands after being married for 72 years exactly one hour apart.
Gordon Yeager, 94, had married his wife Norma, 90, on the day of her graduation from high school, and the pair never looked back.
"She graduated from high school on May 26, 1939, at about 10am, and at about 10pm that night she was married to my dad at his sister's house," the couple's daughter, Donna Sheets, said.
Gordon and Norma were rushed to intensive care, after a car accident as they made their way into town. In the hospital, the emergency hospital staff knew not to keep them apart when things started to look bad.
The pair suffered broken bones and other injuries, but they only had concerns for each other and not their own wellbeing.
"She was saying her chest hurt and what's wrong with Dad? Even laying there like that, she was worried about Dad," Dennis Yeager, the couple's son, said.
"And his back was hurting and he was asking about Mum."
The couple were moved in the same room together to hold hands when doctors realised that they were unlikely to recover.
"They joined hands; his right hand, her left hand," Sheets said.
Even after Gordon stopped breathing, the heart rate monitor still detected beats.
"Someone in there said, 'Why, then, when we look at the monitor is the heart still beating?'" Sheets recalled. "The nurse said Dad was picking up Mum's heartbeat through Mum's hand."
"And we thought, 'Oh my gosh, Mum's heart is beating through him,'" Dennis Yeager said.
According to their children, Gordon was the exciting centre of attention while his wife kept things together.
The couple lived a "very, very full life".
