After 72 Years, They Died Holding Hands

I get regular emails from FAMILYLIFE and they recently sent me this sweet story of an elderly married couple. It almost made me cry.

After 72 Years, They Died Holding Hands
On the morning of May 26, 1939, Norma graduated from her high school in Iowa. That night she was married to Gordon Yeager. And for the next 72 years, they were hardly apart. “They just loved being together,” says their son, Dennis.
Their daughter, Donna, agrees: "They always did everything together,” she says. "They weren't apart. They just weren't."
According to Dennis, "The party didn't start until he showed up. He was the outgoing one and she supported him by being the giver. She supported Dad in everything. And he would've been lost without her."
Gordon, 94, and Norma, 90, became concerned about what would happen when one of them died. “He said, 'I have to stick around … I can't go until she does because I have to stay here for her.’ And she would say the same thing," Dennis says.
Earlier this month, they were in a car accident in their hometown of State Center, Iowa, and were sent to the hospital with multiple injuries. When they were separated, each asked about the other. Then they were moved into a room together, where they lay in side-by-side beds, holding hands. 
Gordon, age 94, died in the middle of the afternoon. Everyone in the room was amazed at what happened next. Even though he had stopped breathing, his monitor still showed a heartbeat. 
Finally they realized it was Norma’s heartbeat, passing through their hands. 

Norma passed an hour later. "Neither one of them would've wanted to be without each other,” Donna says. “I couldn't figure out how it was going to work. We were very blessed, honestly, that they went this way."

And I suppose all of us are blessed to catch such a glimpse of oneness in marriage.

Marriage may be hard, but I believe it is one of the biggest tools God uses to change us. The "real" us may not come out around others, but can't help but come out around our spouse! 

God has used Daniel to teach me that I am not as sweet of a person as I thought I was. Daniel is much more patient, much more forgiving and so much more generous with his words of praise. I'm the one that keeps a long list of rules of how everything should be done and, my dwarf-self feels related to "Grumpy" more often than "Happy."

I hope after 72 years, I turn out to be as sweet as him ~ and we'll still be holding hands.