MELVINDALE, Mich. (WSVN) — A couple married for over five decades took their final breaths just hours apart from each other.
According to Fox 2, Will and Judy Webb met when they were only teenagers.
“At 14 they met and were friends. They dated other people. They were engaged to other people,” said daughter Marybeth Webb. “And then they were both single when he went to Army, so she was like, ‘I didn’t have anyone to write, so I started writing your dad.'”
Eventually, the letters turned to love. The couple married on Feb. 16, 1963 and raised three daughters.
“The love and mutual respect,” said Lori Thomas, one of their daughters. “They always had their arms on each other. If she was away five minutes, he would say, ‘Where’s Mama? Have you seen Mama?'”
However, a few months ago, Judy suffered complications from a routine surgery.
“It went bad,” Lori said. “She ended up coding from it [going into cardiopulmonary arrest]. My father watched it and broke.”
That night, Will went home, and the next morning, the girls discovered that their 77-year-old father had collapsed.
The pair were taken to different hospitals, but family members said their symptoms mirrored each other.
“She would get a fever from her infection; he would get a fever. Couldn’t figure out where his was coming from because there was no source,” Marybeth said. “She ended up with encephalopathy as a complication from the antibiotic she was on; he ended up with encephalopathy.”
Eventually, the two were placed in hospice and were reunited.
“We said, ‘Mom, you want to see dad?’ She said, ‘Yes’ all excited, and they brought mom through the door in dad’s room, and he looked over and saw her and said, ‘Mama!’ And that was like the last thing he said,” daughter Ann Warren told Fox 2.
Eventually, Will died while holding Judy’s hand, and just hours later, Judy was gone too.
“They were holding hands, and when my dad took his last breath, my mom went like this, rubbing his hand,” said Lori. “She wasn’t responding, but she knew he died, so she rubbed his hand, like I’ll be there soon, and she was.”
While the children are heartbroken at the loss of their parents, they said they take comfort in the fact that they went together.
“We are suffering the loss of our parents at the same time, and that’s horrid,” Marybeth said. “They will never have to suffer the loss of each other.”
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