Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

After 62 years of marriage, couple dies together while holding hands [TX]
www.ksat.com ^ | Updated: 5:17 PM, May 09, 2017 | By Chip Brewster

Posted on 05/11/2017 10:20:40 AM PDT by Red Badger

Pair dies less than 1 hour 30 minutes apart

LAKE JACKSON, Texas - After nearly 62 years of marriage, Lake Jackson couple Tom and Delma Ledbetter left this world about two weeks ago.

“Mama was from Nebraska, and daddy was from Arkansas,” said Donetta Nichols.

Nichols is one of the Ledbetters' daughters. She tells us the couple first met in their early 20s through mutual friends.

“He was stationed in Florida and my mother and her girlfriend had moved to Florida,” she said.

Their first date of sorts happened when Tom had to “just move his car.”

“They drove around two, three different blocks or whatever and they came back and they parked and he said he reached over and he grabbed her hand and he said, 'I don't know what made me do it.' He said, 'I just reached over and gave her a kiss on the cheek,'” Nichols said.

Three weeks later, they were married. Two daughters soon followed, then grandchildren and then great-grandchildren. It was a life filled with love and laughter. Then, in April of this year, Delma fell ill and did not recover.

“They couldn't get a pulse. They couldn't get a blood pressure. They couldn't get anything. Yet mama was just hanging on to something,” said Donetta.

A few days later, Tom too fell ill.

“We got him over to the nursing home with Mama. They had pushed their little beds together and Mama was laying right there, facing him. She was asleep and Daddy goes and he reached over there and he grabbed ahold of her hand and he just laid there with her, and it was so sweet,” Nichols said.

Not long after, Tom died. Delma followed, not even an hour and a half later. Their lives ended the same way their relationship began – holding hands.

“I mean, it was exactly how they wanted to go. It couldn't have been any better,” Nichols said.

From hospice to funeral home to final resting place, Tom and Delma didn't leave each other's side. Now, at Restwood Memorial Park, they'll never have to.


TOPICS: Religion
KEYWORDS: elderly; marriage; retirement
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121 next last
Video at link..................
1 posted on 05/11/2017 10:20:40 AM PDT by Red Badger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Best way to go...With your love....


2 posted on 05/11/2017 10:24:47 AM PDT by JBW1949 (I'm really PC....PATRIOTICALLY CORRECT!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

That’s the kind of love that you won’t see in pop music, culture, movies, etc.

God bless them both. What a great example they were for friends and family.


3 posted on 05/11/2017 10:24:59 AM PDT by Made In The USA (Next thing you know, 'ol Jed's a millionaire)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Contrast with...

[Millennials are still not getting married]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3551497/posts

...Generation FAIL.


4 posted on 05/11/2017 10:25:18 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Blurry screen. What a beautiful life and family they had.


5 posted on 05/11/2017 10:26:25 AM PDT by azishot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

For couples married to each other a long time, this is a fairly common occurrence.


6 posted on 05/11/2017 10:28:04 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (WKU 2016 Boca Raton Bowl Champions)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I wish my parents went that way.


7 posted on 05/11/2017 10:28:33 AM PDT by forgotten man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

The kind of marriage one strives for.


8 posted on 05/11/2017 10:29:01 AM PDT by MrEdd (MrEdd)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HLPhat

>>>Contrast with...

[Millennials are still not getting married]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3551497/posts

...Generation FAIL.<<<

To be fair to the young men, the jobs that allowed their parents and grandparents to care for a family nearly straight out of high school are almost all gone. And from what I have seen of several college graduates, their income potential straight out of college is barely able to afford a starter house and a stay at home mom raising a kid.

So it’s one part choice not to settle down and another part circumstances.


9 posted on 05/11/2017 10:33:42 AM PDT by BJ1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: HLPhat

Who says it’s necessary to get married?

I wouldn’t if I had the choice to make again.


10 posted on 05/11/2017 10:37:08 AM PDT by mom4melody (,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: mom4melody

Decisions have consequences.

Deal with it.


11 posted on 05/11/2017 10:38:01 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: BJ1
>>the jobs that allowed their parents and grandparents to care for a family nearly straight out of high school are almost all gone.

And excuses are like _________?

Hint: Everybody has one and they all stink.

Pretty sure enlisting straight out of high school is still an option.

12 posted on 05/11/2017 10:44:08 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: mom4melody

Sometimes there are periods of up and downs in any marriage. God bless.


13 posted on 05/11/2017 10:50:42 AM PDT by alternatives? (Why have an army if there are no borders?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: HLPhat

Enlisting is not a good pathway to marriage. And besides, if you get married while still in, there are a LOT of cheating military wives. I know this for a fact.


14 posted on 05/11/2017 10:54:40 AM PDT by baltimorepoet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: HLPhat

I’m simply saying that young people aren’t marrying in part due to lack of ability (good income) to do so. Also factors beyond a man’s ability to change is the inherent risk of getting married that didn’t exist 50 years ago.

Helen Smith wrote a book called Men on Strike. Here is an interview about it with her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yzUECFwU3U

Basically her summary is that men are acting in a logical fashion by choosing not to get married. The risk vs. reward thing has trended to make it so. Risks are up and the rewards of marriage are down.

Now sure, many young men just want free milk and to lead a hedonistic life style. But even if that mindset wasn’t there, marriage rates would still be down as marriage isn’t the good deal for men it once was. Telling men to suck it up and accept terms as currently offered simply won’t work.


15 posted on 05/11/2017 10:56:25 AM PDT by BJ1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Such a wonderful couple, and such a loving life.
RIP


16 posted on 05/11/2017 10:58:47 AM PDT by Verbosus (/* No Comment */)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: baltimorepoet
More excuses.

The self-worshiping culture is what the self-worshiping culture creates.

Mark 10:6-12

6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'a 7 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,b 8 and the two will become one flesh.'c So they are no longer two, but one. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."

NIV

ReadTheFieldManual

17 posted on 05/11/2017 10:58:59 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: HLPhat

Yup. You are awesome with your “more excuses” stuff.

Because I love getting sloppy seconds from a cheating ho that I stupidly married.

If there really was an Adam and an Eve, I’d like to build a time machine, travel back in time with my S&W 357 magnum and introduce Eve to something called “hollow point”.


18 posted on 05/11/2017 11:01:06 AM PDT by baltimorepoet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: BJ1

>>I wouldn’t if I had the choice to make again.

Uhuh.

The children you had and/or adopted happy to hear that, are they?

Excuses are like __________.


19 posted on 05/11/2017 11:01:41 AM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: HLPhat

You are your Bible are just excuses for Gynocentrism and screwing men over.

Screw marriage. It is like playing Russian Roulette with 3 rounds in the revolver.


20 posted on 05/11/2017 11:02:19 AM PDT by baltimorepoet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson