A couple from Texas dies 90 minutes apart while holding hands after 62 years of marriage
“Till Death Do Us Part” is merely a movie phrase since things don’t work that way in real life, and nobody dies for anyone else. However, a couple from Texas proved that this form of love can exist in real life as well as in books and movies.
Tom and Delma Ledbetter, a Florida-based married couple who had spent the last 62 years of their lives together, died only ninety minutes apart. They were reportedly holding hands as they died, according to doctors.
“It was exactly how they intended things to turn out. It couldn’t have gone any better,” Donetta Nichols, their daughter, told Click2Houston. At the time of their deaths, Tom was 84 years old and Delma was 82 years old. They both died in Texas on April 21.
“They were introduced to each other by their mutual friends who also lived in Florida,” Nichols, one of their two daughters, said of her parents’ first meeting when they were in their early 20s. Their first “date” was barely a “date,” and it happened one day while Tom was moving his car.
“They went around two, three different blocks or something,” Nichols recalls her dad telling her, “and when they came back and parked, he leaned across and grabbed her hand and said, ‘I don’t know what made me do it.’ just reached over and kissed her on the cheek,” he explained.
“And that’s how their relationship started, and they got married three weeks after their first date, can you believe it?” she said with a smile.
According to their obituary, once Tom retired, he and Delma traveled around the United States, spending their golden years camping at various locations.
“It was only last month when my mother became sick, we consulted different doctors however her health didn’t recover.”
“They couldn’t get a pulse. They couldn’t get blood pressure. They couldn’t get anything. Yet mama was just hanging on to something,” Nichols cried. “That something must have been her husband, my dad.”
“He fell ill just a few days after mama and we got him over to the nursing home with her,” she continued. “They had pushed their little beds together and she was laying right there, facing him. She was asleep and Daddy her hand and he just laid there with her, and it was so sweet.”
Finally, they passed away on April 21. She continued as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Together for 62 years here on earth and now they will continue to share their love in Heaven.”
Stephanie Rutkowski, one of the couple’s granddaughters, wrote on Facebook:
“My papa and nanny both passed away today holding each other’s hands a little over an hour apart. What a blessing for them to be able to go together!”
There were two daughters in the family, as well as seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Restwood Memorial Park in Clute, Texas, now has them buried side by side.
