It’s amazing to watch couples who have been married for decades. While no one is ever perfect at it, they’ve mastered the art of marriage better than most could ever dream of. It’s as if they’ve truly become one person, complimenting each other in every possible way.
An Illinois couple married almost seven decades had a bond so strong that not only did it show in their lives day to day, but also in their deaths. Incredibly, they died just minutes apart while holding hands, family members told a local newspaper.
Skokie residents Isaac and Teresa Vatkin had been married for 69 years and immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina, their grandson, Harold Handler, told the Daily Herald.
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On Saturday, Teresa, 89, and Isaac, 91, lied side-by-side as they took their last breaths. They died “peacefully” at Highland Park Hospital.
Teresa died first, and about 40 minutes after they unlinked the couple’s hands and removed her body from the room, Isaac passed as well.
They were surrounded by family members when they passed. In fact, it was their family that placed wheeled their hospital beds next to each other as they lied unresponsive.
“I didn’t want them to be scared,” their granddaughter Debbie Handler told the newspaper. “I thought maybe if they knew the other was there, it would help.”
The couple met in Argentina, and they would write love letters to each other during their courtship.
“Their love for each other was so strong, they simply could not live without each other,” their daughter, Clara Gesklin, said during their funeral on Monday in Arlington Heights.
When Teresa was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Isaac learned how to use a computer just to research a possible cure. He was in his 80s at the time and desperately fought the children when they suggested she move into a nursing home for specialized care.
After Isaac finally relented, he visited his wife in the hospital every day. Even as his own health began to fail.
“Married 69 years, their love and bond so strong they passed, together, only minutes apart,” the couple’s obituary read. “…Their story is an inspiration for all.”
“You didn’t want to see them go,” grandson William Vatkin said, “but you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
(H/T: Daily Herald)
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