Couple married for more than 60 years die within hours of one another
For more than six decades US couple Dolores and Trent Winstead remained side by side and they were inseparable until the end, passing away within hours of one another.
Earlier in December 88-year-old Trent Winstead became ill and stopped eating so his daughter took him to the hospital, the Washington Post reports.
His kidneys had begun to fail and his condition was weakening following dialysis.
“I don’t know what I would do without him,” Dolores had reportedly said to her daughter Sheryl Winstead.
Dolores who had been by her husband's side in hospital had seemed fine however on December 7 complained of a headache and was vomiting, the Washington Post has reported.
She was resting with her head slumped forward, which at first didn't concern her daughter, but she was unable to wake her up.
The Washington Post reports the 83-year-old had suffered a massive brain hemorrhage.
When her husband was told the news he was taken into her room in a wheelchair.
"Just ask God to wake her up," he reportedly said to his children.
"He can create a miracle."
This night Trent reportedly woke up asking his daughter “is Mama still breathing?”
To which she responded: “Yes, Dad, she’s still breathing.”
For the first time Nashville's Saint Thomas West Hospital received permission to place the couple in the same room, where they reportedly lay together holding hands.
On December 9 at about 9:10 p.m. Dolores stopped breathing.
"I had to lean down next to him, and just kind of tell him, ‘Mom has passed.’ When that happened, it was kind of like his whole spirit just changed," their son Eddie Winstead told WKRN.
When Trent was told of his wife's passing he reportedly appeared to blow a kiss in her direction.
He passed away at about 4pm the next day.
“I hadn’t thought about it this way at the time,” Sheryl Winstead said.
"But, literally, he died of a broken heart.”
Online reports say the couple had two children, three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
They reportedly watched the 10pm news every night and attended church together each Sunday.
The pair began dating in the early 1950s just before Trent left for the Korean War. He kept in touch, writing her letters.
Trent reportedly proposed while Delores was brushing her teeth, seemingly so she couldn't refuse his request, the Washington Post reports.
“They loved each other through the humdrum days. They were more and more in love every day,” their daughter Sheryl Winstead told the publication.
The couple had a joint funeral on December 16.
News break – December 26
