Couple Married For 73yrs Passed Away Minutes Apart

A couple married for seventy three years passed away, ninety-three year-old husband and his 89-year-old wife passed away in separate nursing homes just two minutes apart from each other.

William ‘Wild Bill’ Wilson and his wife Lillian Karr Wilson were both Alzheimer’s patients and were treated in separate nursing homes in Wilmore and Lexington, Kentucky, USA. Their son, Doug said he was first called about his father’s death on Tuesday last week then five minutes later he got another call to say his mother had passed.

He said: “We took it as a blessing because we’re going to have one funeral for both of them. We’re looking at it as a celebration of life because they had a great life.” Bill and Lillian met when they were both athletes at high school then ran off to get married. They survived a war and a number of relocations through their long marriage.

Their three sons regularly drove their mother to see her husband at the Veterans center. Doug said that, although the couple ‘didn’t have communication’, he believes they were ‘reading each other’ just by having the chance to see each other. Their family will gather for a ‘celebration of life’ service in honour of the devoted couple on Saturday.