After being married for 69 years, an Illinois couple recently died within an hour of each other. In the last moments of 89-year-old Teresa Vatkin’s surrender to Alzheimer’s disease, her husband Isaac, 91, held onto her hands.

40 minutes after she died, he joined her in the beyond, according to the Daily Herald. The lovers died on Saturday at the local Highland Park Hospital. Staff of the hospital found both of them unresponsive and breathing shallowly.

The pair whose beds were placed side by side were positioned such that their hands touched.

“I didn’t want them to be scared. I thought maybe if they knew the other was there, it would help,” their granddaughter Debbie Handler said

The husband was a kosher meat distributor while his wife was a homemaker and manicurist.

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“You didn’t want to see them go but you couldn’t ask for anything more,” said grandson William Vatkin.

Clara Gesklin, their daughter said her parents were soulmates who were deeply in love. “They simply could not live without each other,” she said.

Barry Schechter, the rabbi who led the service, said, “They were always in love, literally to the end. To the last second”.

The couple had three children and were said to be close to their grandchildren.