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‘Til Death Do Them Part: Elderly Texas Couple Pass Away Hours Apart After 74 Years Of Marriage

By Jonathan Brown
Published on: 11:22 PST, Nov 3, 2016

An elderly couple from Texas promised to love, honor, and cherish one another more than seven decades ago in the southern state, and recently departed this Earth on the very same day, just hours apart.

Muldoon resident Leonard Cherry, 95, passed away on October 27, following a short hospice stay in Waco, noted KWTX-10. His beloved wife, 93-year-old Hazel Cherry, who had been in good health until not too long ago, followed her husband in death less than 10 hours later in an assisted living residence right next door.

Although still in a deep level of mourning over the loss of his parents, 72-year-old David Cherry, the late couple’s oldest son, couldn’t help but find a small bit of solace in the fact that his mom and dad were quickly reunited in spirit following their passing.

“The more I think about it,” David shared, “[the more I] smile because of how much they loved each other. I feel blessed that Daddy’s suffering is over, and I feel blessed that Mom is with him and that she didn’t have to [go] alone.”

According to the Cherry family, Leonard was admitted to the St. Catherine Center only days before his death due to continued failing health. Hazel, meanwhile, whose well-being was considered to be quite decent for her old age, moved into The Village at Providence Park, an assisted independent living facility, just steps away from the hospice facility where her husband was being cared for.

“Mother had been driving around town and still going to the grocery store as recently as two weeks ago,” David confirmed to KWTX, “but Dad’s health had been failing for some years.”

The high school sweethearts married not long after their graduation from school, in January of 1942. Leonard eventually enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and went on to become B-24 bomber pilot. As he fought for his country, Hazel patiently waited for her husband to return home. Cherry would ultimately find himself stationed at the Carswell Army Air Corps Base in Fort Worth, where he taught other soldiers how to fly planes, before being discharged in 1949.

Following his service in the military, the elder Cherry, along with Hazel, began a career in auto-body works, which led to them opening up a lucrative repair shop. They ran the shop until 1980, when both Leonard and Hazel decided to retire and sell the business in order to spend more time with their son, David, and their grandchild, Craig.

“The two [of them] were always smiling and always deeply in love,” Craig, a longtime lawyer, remarked.

While Leonard’s death did not come as much of a surprise to the Cherry family, it is currently unknown what ailment led to Hazel’s passing. A joint memorial service is said to be set for the pair this coming Friday.

Earlier this year, another married couple, albeit one much younger than Leonard and Hazel Cherry, made similar headlines after their relationship was deemed a real-life version of the love story told in the novel, The Fault In Our Stars.

As reported by the Inquisitr in October, Kentucky natives Katie Prager, 26, and Dalton Prager, 25, died days apart from each other as a result of Cystic Fibrosis, the genetic disorder which affects the respiratory system and other organs within the body. Initially ordered by doctors to refrain from meeting one another face-to-face, the twosome defied their wishes and did so in 2011 after first becoming acquainted online.

The twosome would marry in 2013, which Katie once claimed was worth of risk of her health and life (those who suffer from Cystic Fibrosis are more susceptible to certain germs and bacteria than those who don’t).

“I’d rather have five years of being in love and just be really completely happy,” she once stated, “than 20 years of not having anybody.”

[Featured Image by Eva Katalin Kondoros/iStock]

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