Posted on 04/24/2005 5:10:55 PM PDT by Borges
ST. LOUIS, Mich. - Alexander J. Vance and his wife, Leola, made a life together for nearly 64 years. This week, they died 14 hours apart at Schnepp's Health Care Center.
Alexander Vance met Leola in Algonac, where Vance was building barges for the military in 1941. He was 20, she was 16.
Leola Vance later told her children that she liked her future husband's personality and the twinkle in his eye. He liked "everything" about her, Phil Vance, the couple's 48-year-old son, told the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant for a Saturday story.
They married Dec. 19, 1941 and moved to the Alma area.
Alexander Vance worked for Alma Products for 39 years, retiring as general foreman about 20 years ago, while his wife was a homemaker.
The couple stayed in their home for as long as they could, until Parkinson's disease forced Alexander Vance to move into a nursing home in February.
Earlier this month, Leola Vance, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, began complaining that her head hurt. It later was determined that she had bleeding in her brain. By April 15, her husband also had taken a turn for the worse and both were in a coma in a nursing home.
"It was almost like a race," Phil Vance said. "They always said they wanted to go together and I sometimes think they were telepathically communicating about who would go first. But we were told she might live for several more days."
Alexander Vance died at 9:45 a.m. EDT Wednesday. Phil Vance said family members were singing hymns in his mother's room later that night, when she stopped breathing just before midnight.
"'Now you can be together,' I said," recalled Phil Vance, a retired minister who will perform a service at the Dewey Funeral Home in Alma on Monday.
"They had asked me to do the funeral. It's really a great love story."
Wow 64 years... some peopel can't stay married for 64 months.
Lovely story.
Must have been one smooth talker to get her dad's okay for all that.
Sounds like the movie "The Notebook" good flick, good story.
(?)
Well look who's talking about smooth speech.
Every time I get married, I provide her a 72 month, 72,000 mile warranty.
LOL!!
Bush's fault
A duprass. It happens.
Someone lent me a copy of that at work. I couldn't make it through the first 30 minutes. Can't even remember the plot now, but it must have been a chick flick.
Man, 64 years of naggin' ending just like that. Amazin' ;)
Um, I would duck if I were you! :-)
What a love story....on so many levels.
Where've You Been
Kathy Mattea
Claire had all but given up,
When she and Edwin fell in love.
She touched his face and shook her head,
In disbelief, she sighed and said:
"In many dreams I've held you near,
"Now, at last, you're really here.
"Where've you been?
"I've looked for you forever and a day.
"Where've you been?
"I'm just not myself when you're away."
He asked her for her hand for life,
And she became a salesman's wife.
He was home each night by eight,
But one stormy evening, he was late.
Her frightened tears fell to the floor,
Until his key turned in the door.
"Where've you been?
"I've looked for you forever and a day.
"Where've you been?
"I'm just not myself when you're away."
They'd never spent a night apart,
For sixty years, she heard him snore.
Now they're in a hospital,
In separate beds on different floors.
Claire soon lost her memory,
Forgot the names of family.
She never spoke a word again,
Then one day, they wheeled him in.
He held her hand and stroked her hair,
In a fragile voice she said:
"Where've you been?
"I've looked for you forever and a day.
"Where've you been?
"I'm just not myself when you're away."
"No, I'm just not myself when you're away."
I'm not reading that sap :p
LOL!!!!
That's so beautiful!
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