Published on 12:00 AM, August 08, 2014

Till death do us part

Till death do us part

Couple married for 62 years die on same day holding hands

A couple married for almost 62 years have died on the same day in California.

Don and Maxine Simpson passed away within four hours of each other last month at their granddaughter's home, where they spent their last days together.

Simpson, 90, and his 87-year-old wife suffered from illness in recent years but had travelled the world in the early years of their marriage.

“They did a lot of amazing things” together, their granddaughter Melissa Sloan told the Bakersfield Californian.

After their wedding in 1952, they moved to Germany and spent the next few years in Europe. They adopted twin 18-month-old boys from a German orphanage before returning to the US.

Sloan said her grandparents held hands as they lay dying.

Simpson died at 7:00am on July 21 and after her body was taken from the room, her husband's breathing became laboured and he died within an hour.

“When her body left the room his soul left with her,” their granddaughter said.