Have you cried at your desk at work yet today? Would you like to? Then read on.
Gordon and Norma Yeager were married in 1939. They spent their whole lives hating to be apart. And following a car accident on October 12, the couple died in the hospital within 70 minutes of one another, while holding hands in the intensive care unit.
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The car accident happened near the couple’s home in State Center, Iowa. Gordon, 94, had failed to yield to an oncoming car at a stop sign, and the two vehicles collided. The passengers of the other car, Charles and Barbara Clapsaddle, were also taken to the hospital with injuries. Charles was released but Barbara was reportedly in stable but critical condition.
The Yeagers, however, were in worse shape, as they were placed in ICU together in a hospital in Des Moines. At 3:38 p.m., Gordon died while Norma, 90, continued breathing for more than an hour before slipping away.
“It was really strange, they were holding hands, and Dad stopped breathing, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on because the heart monitor was still going,” the couple’s son, Dennis Yeager, told KCCI.com. “But we were like, ‘he isn’t breathing. How does he still have a heart beat?’ The nurse checked and said that’s because they were holding hands and it’s going through them. Her heart was beating through him and picking it up.”
The Yeager’s children — the couple also had a daughter, Donna Sheets — said they’re glad that their parents got to stay together until the end. “We were very blessed, honestly, that they went this way,” Sheets said.
And let the tears roll.