The Old Donation Church in Virginia had given the couple their best wishes on their 70th wedding anniversary a year before they passed away. Source - Youtube/Old Donation Church
World War II veterans Isabell and Preble Staver, who married in 1946, have died on the same day as they held hands for the last time.
The couple first met on a blind date in 1942. Their love blossomed until the war interrupted their plans for children and marriage.
During the war they wrote letters to one another, with Preble, a Marine Corp, quipping that he was "missing his sweetheart dearly". He kept a photo of Isabell, a nurse in the navy, in his wallet, carrying her with him wherever he went.
When Preble returned from the battlefields of the Pacific, he married the love of his life and the couple went on to have five children together.
According to their daughter, Laurie Clinton, Preble loved that Isabell was so caring, generous and kind-hearted. For Isabell it was Preble's ability to make her feel protected and loved that saw her affections endure.
Seventy-one years after their marriage, the couple were taken to a care home together where they fulfilled their heartwarming final wish - to nap together and hold hands one last time.
"They didn't say a single word to each other," Clinton told GoodHousekeeping.com. "They just reached out for each other - their hands, like magnets, clasped together - and they looked so peaceful."
Eight days after sharing a special final moment together, the couple died just hours apart.
"After Mum passed, I went to Dad and bent down next to his bed and whispered, "It's okay for you to let go now, Mum is waiting for you on the other side",' Clinton said.
"I asked if he wanted to go to her funeral, and he said, 'No,' and cried. Then, he was gone, too."
Preble and Isabell Staver held hands one final time. Photo / Facebook
Clinton described her father as a tall, outgoing man with a strong, "larger than life" personality.
She described her mother as "my heart".
"She taught me how to be a kind person, how to be a compassionate person," she said.
In 2007 Isabell began showing signs of dementia, but Preble refused to acknowledge his wife was in decline.
He would go to the library and pick out books for them to read together.
"When Mum started becoming repetitive and forgetful from dementia, Dad went into denial... it was hard to imagine life without her."
In 2013 Preble had a bad fall and required brain surgery. The family began preparing for his death.
"Mum was distraught. She would hold his hand and stroke his arm and tell him he was her big, strong Marine," Clinton said.
The couple spent their final days together in the same hospice until they both died on October 25, Preble was 96 and Isabell was 95.
Two weeks after their death, family and friends farewelled the couple in a joint funeral where a Marine honour guard stood by as the couple were laid to rest.
"They had the type of true love that we all look for in this lifetime," Clinton said.
