A Tennessee couple married for nearly 64 years died just hours apart as they spent their final moments holding hands in their hospital beds.
Dolores Winstead, 83, and husband Trent Winstead, 88, died in Nashville’s Saint Thomas West Hospital two weeks ago – five weeks short of their 64th wedding anniversary.
Several days before the couple passed away, a healthy Dolores stood by her husband’s hospital bed holding his hand after he was admitted due to his failing kidneys.
Dialysis had started to weaken Trent’s heart and he was moved to intensive care as Dolores and their two adult children, Eddie and Sheryl, were forced to watch his condition worsen.
But soon after, on the night of December 7, Dolores started to complain of a headache and started throwing up.
The 83-year-old had suffered a severe brain aneurysm as she stood by her husband’s bedside. She was connected to a ventilator as her condition started to deteriorate.
Hospital staff received approval to place the couple in the same room so they could spend their final moments together.
They were pictured lying together holding hands.
Dolores stopped breathing at 9:10pm on December 9.
The couple’s son Eddie had to lean over and tell Trent that his beloved wife had died.
The 88-year-old blew a kiss to his wife and died just hours later.
‘Because she was gone, he just could not handle it. We just watched him die,’ their daughter Sheryl told the Washington Post.
‘I hadn’t thought about it this way at the time. (He) literally, he died of a broken heart.
‘Never in a million years did I think I was going to come out of the hospital with neither one.’
