With a love of over seven decades,
Gordon and Norma lying together,
Both placed upon a hospital bed;
Holding hands with each other.

The car accident was terrible,
And no matter how the doctors tried,
They knew the couple could not recover,
So they placed them side by side.

Clasping the hand of her dear husband
Norma, ignoring her own pain,
Had only thoughts for the man she loved,
And asked what ailed him time and again.

And Gordon for his own part,
His body racked with strife,
Tightly clasped back at Norma’s small hand,
And kept asking after his wife.

Later in the afternoon,
Gordon finally slipped away,
Still holding the hand of the woman,
He loved to his dying day.

But doctors still were getting a heartbeat,
And they couldn’t understand.
Until they realised it was Norma’s heart,
Pulsing through her husband’s hand.

Norma’s strength throughout a lifetime,
Gordon remained her strength in death.
And so remained for another hour,
Until she too drew her last breath.

How very cruel it would have been,
Had either of them had survived,
To go on living without their love,
Throughout a cold and lonely life.

For lovers death can hold no dread;
To lose the other, the greatest fear.
So much kinder that Gordon and Norma,
Went together, still in love so dear.


(For Gordon and Norma Yeager of Des Moines, Iowa, US, who
were married 72 years and who died within an hour of each
other, 12th October 2011.  After Gordon Yeager died, doctors
still detected a heartbeat and then realised it was that of
Norma Yeager, who was still holding her huband's hand. 
Written, 21st October 2011.)