Long Married Couple Presley and Ethel Bradshaw Die Hours Apart
Stephanie Hallett | Jan 27, 2012 01:06 PM EST
Http://i.huffpost.com/gen/480525/thumbs/slongmarriedcouplelarge300.jpg
Presley and Ethel Bradshaw, a Kentucky couple, had been married for 73 years when they died Monday, hours apart.
Ethel, 99, entered a Louisville nursing home four years ago when her health began to decline. Presley, 101, visited his wife there several times a week.
"[He would] hold her hand, kiss all over her, tell her how much he loved her and missed her," Shannon Bass, Director of Admissions at Meadowview Health and Rehab Center, told Wave3.com. Two years later, he moved into the center to be with his wife.
"They were a true epitome of the word love," said Meadowview nurse Chasity Stoudemire.
Presely died first, with Ethel following him four hours later. Though Ethel suffered from dementia, Bass believes she was aware that her husband had died.
The couple were married on Oct. 21, 1938 in Somerset, Kentucky.
It seems that long-married couples are often intrinsically aware of the death of one spouse, perhaps because of their strong bond. Below, five stories of other loving, long-married couples who lived their lives together, til death (hours apart) did them part.
Gordan And Norma Yeager

share this story


Read more in weddings
Why You're Still Not Married
Stop The Wedding: Wedding Objections Scenes From TV And Movies (VIDEO)
Military Marriage: 10 Things You Might Not Know

Also on the Huffington Post