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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
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To: Secret Agent Man

Which blanket statement is that, super genius - That American culture has been demoralized into a hedonistic state of self-worshiping, marriage despising, family destroying, systemically corrupt division?


81 posted on 05/11/2017 1:39:06 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: redcatcherb412

Actually, that town is nice.

I’ve spent a few days there.


82 posted on 05/11/2017 1:43:45 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: HLPhat

I think you are confusing two separate things. On one hand there is a selfish mentality in our society. On the other hand real wages are down for men who only have a high school diploma. More college is not the answer is there simply are not enough jobs that require a college degree. More people going to college just makes the value of a degree less valuable


83 posted on 05/11/2017 1:44:56 PM PDT by BJ1
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To: Red Badger
Mr. RightField's parents were married for over 73 years when a fast-moving cancer took his mom at age 92 within 6 months of diagnosis. She had been her husband's caregiver for many years as his dementia progressed. When she had a stroke (prior to the cancer) she developed her own dementia and we had to move them into a memory care facility. The facility was wonderful and gave them a better quality of life than we ever could ... and we tried for many months.

When hospice finally took over during mom's last 2 weeks, some of the hospice workers wanted us to move dad into another room, or at least get twin beds so he would not be in the same bed with her. We refused. We knew they wanted to be together until the end. Dad was in bed sleeping when she finally passed. We woke him up ... he looked over at her and said "She's gone." Then, he got out of bed, knelt down and prayed silently at the bedside. There wasn't a dry eye in the room.

We took him to the funeral so he could see her in the casket. His only words were, "That's her! Thank you."

Since her passing last September, dad has been understandably more quiet and withdrawn. Though he never asks for her, it's apparent there is an emptiness in him. I know he'll be joining her soon.

84 posted on 05/11/2017 1:52:07 PM PDT by RightField
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To: BJ1
>>More college is not the answer

Who said more "college" is the answer - Not me.

You know what M.B.A. stands for?

M.ore B.ullShyte. A.bove

No shortage of those among the Jesuit-Marxist's bankster sheeple fleecers.

 

85 posted on 05/11/2017 1:54:42 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: baltimorepoet

Hang in there. It seems like you are making a reasoned response to the environment in the US. It is a choice each of us have to make. Remaining single doesn’t mean you are mentally unbalanced or that you will go to Hell as some posters seem to imply.

My wife and I have told our boys that that they shouldn’t even consider getting married to someone that wasn’t active in their Christian faith. Current US society is gynocentric, as you noted by the unfair court system, and evidenced by a 40% illegitimacy rate. Even marrying someone active in the church is not a guarantee, as many churches have become gynocentric themselves.

Enjoy your boys, good luck, and God bless.


86 posted on 05/11/2017 1:54:46 PM PDT by alternatives? (Why have an army if there are no borders?)
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To: baltimorepoet; HeadOn

Feeling no emotion...and pretending, though it may ‘work’ for you in some fashion, it doesn’t seem to me to be an authentic way to live. As if you’ve amputated an important part of what it means to be fully human.

Funny, I chose the opposite (in order to survive - thrive, really), not avoiding, but forcing myself to go through the stages of healing. To ‘drink the utter dregs’ of the experience as it were.

Do you like poetry, baltimore? I can’t read Fern Hill or Prufrock without getting salty cheeks :))

I like HeadOn’s ‘voice’...


87 posted on 05/11/2017 3:45:34 PM PDT by spankalib ("I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.")
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To: spankalib

I agree, you have to go through the stages of healing. The anger, hurt and trauma will eat you alive.


88 posted on 05/11/2017 4:07:50 PM PDT by Trillian
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To: HLPhat

30+ years of wedded bliss here. And 25 years as a divorce attorney.
Life’s too short to be unhappy. Marriage isn’t for everyone. The youngsters, guys esp, have an acronym: GYOW/Go your own way.
It’s not surprising that they hesitate to take up with young women pushing 30 who (to use their words) “rode the cock carousel” for years and now want to settle down ... at least for a while.


89 posted on 05/11/2017 4:12:52 PM PDT by tumblindice ("Fight for your country." Hector)
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To: HLPhat

It is anti-male, misandrious, men hating feminist, feminine imperative, anti hetero men, anti father, anti mens rights.

Of course a blue piller won’t ever mention one of these reasons, and will deny they are occuring and/or of course as always, blame men for them if they do acknowledge they occur.


90 posted on 05/11/2017 4:17:16 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: tumblindice

>>young women pushing 30 who

Uhuh.

I don’t envy young people in a dating environment where choosing a mate who lies about their history - can kill you.

But just because the Oil light on the cultural dash board is illuminated - doesn’t mean the driver should push the gas peddle to the floor and run the car into a wall.

Lot’s of folks gon’ be getting a Darwin Award they wouldn’t be gettin’ if they’d RTFM and followed the instructions that came with the species.


91 posted on 05/11/2017 4:23:28 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Secret Agent Man

>>It is anti-male, misandrious, men hating feminist, feminine imperative, anti hetero men, anti father, anti mens rights.

Good parents teach their children how to avoid environmental hazards like those.

YMMV!


92 posted on 05/11/2017 4:25:53 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: HLPhat

Impossible to avoid, it is entrenched in all strata of current us society. Reinforced by existing societal systems.


93 posted on 05/11/2017 4:44:21 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

>>Impossible to avoid,

https://www.amazon.com/Climb-History-Rock-Climbing-Colorado/dp/B008SLDNQG

Meh. Impossible is overrated - and, with wisdom and preparation, accomplished .


94 posted on 05/11/2017 4:53:46 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Red Badger

RIP.


95 posted on 05/11/2017 5:16:52 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Je Suis Pepe)
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To: Red Badger

I hope we die at the same time. It would be awful for either one of us to live without the other.


96 posted on 05/11/2017 5:33:09 PM PDT by SaraJohnson ( Whites being racially harassed and harmed by Leftist in power need to sue! It's pay day.)
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To: Made In The USA

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

You haven’t seen The Notebook...the same thing and it will bring tears to the eyes of even the most cynical person...

That many years of marriage used to be for our parents and aunts and uncles; now it’s sisters/brothers and soon to be us as well..


97 posted on 05/11/2017 5:41:36 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: HLPhat

What I’m saying is you completely ignore the fact that men can’t support a family as a group as easily as was possible fifty years ago. You also ignore the harsh realty of divorce rape in our culture and legal system


98 posted on 05/11/2017 5:41:58 PM PDT by BJ1
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To: Bob434

I love that show and watch several reruns every night for a laugh and change of pace from the constant yammering on so called news shows...After that The King of Queens which is just as enjoyable for unwinding...


99 posted on 05/11/2017 5:46:33 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: BJ1

Who said it was supposed to be easy?

Boohoo.


100 posted on 05/11/2017 6:01:35 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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