A couple married for 74 years died just hours apart.
Leonard Cherry and his wife Hazel were high school sweethearts who married each other in January 1942 in Muldoon, Texas, and died just hours apart last week, CNN reported.
“The two were always smiling and always deeply in love,” said grandson Craig Cherry to KWTX.
The couple’s 72-year-old son, David Cherry, said he is happy his mother and father can be together forever, even though the family is mourning their loss.
“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 live alone,” he said.
Leonard Cherry, 95, had been in hospice care just days before his death at the St. Catherine Center in Waco, while his wife, Hazel Cherry, 93, lived at the nursing home next door.
“Mother had been driving around town and still going to the grocery store as recently as two weeks ago, but Dad’s health had been failing for some years,” David Cherry told KWTX.
Leonard Cherry died at 1 p.m. on Thursday, and Hazel died at 11 p.m. that same day.
The cause of her death was not immediately clear.
Leonard Cherry was a B-24 bomber pilot with the Army Air Corps stationed in Fort Worth at the beginning of World War II.
After the war ended, he stayed in Fort Worth and went to work as an auto body repairman. He later owned an auto repair business with his wife, until 1980, when the couple of 40 years sold the business and moved to Woodway to be closer to their grandchild and son.
The couple’s memorial service is Friday.
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