by Beverley Ann D'Cruz
Following an accident, the couple take their last breath within an hour of each other.
'‘Til death do us part', was a marriage vow that Iowa couple Norma, 90, and Gordon Yeager, 94, took seriously.
On October 12 after a trip into town ended in an accident with another car, the Yeagers were rushed to the intensive care unit of a hospital near Marshalltown. "They brought them in the same room in intensive care and put them together -- and they were holding hands in ICU. They were not really responsive," said their son Dennis Yeager in an interview with
Des Moines' KCCI news station.
And then something unusual happened. Although Gordon passed away at 3.38pm, his heart monitor still registered a heartbeat. Puzzled because their father had stopped breathing, Dennis and his sister Donna Sheets were told by the nurse that because the couple was holding hands, their mother's heart was actually beating through their father's body. About an hour later – still clutching each other hands – Norma passed away as well.
This touching end came as no surprise to Dennis who knew his parents cherished being together. "Neither one of them would've wanted to be without each other. I couldn't figure out how it was going to work," said Donna, who was also interviewed by
KCCI. "We were very blessed, honestly, that they went this way." On Monday at their funeral, Gordon and Norma still held hands in their casket. Keeping them together for eternity, the family plan was to have them cremated and mix their ashes together.
"They just loved being together. Everybody argues once in awhile, but they still [sic], he said 'I have to stick around. I can't go until she does because I have to stay here for her and she would say the same thing,'" said Dennis Yeager. And in an ending that almost seems crafted in Hollywood, their love seemed to stand the test of time and join them together in death as well.
What do you think about the Yeagers' devotion to each other? Does this kind of story leave you believing in the concept of ‘true love'? 
