Couple dies together after 63 years of marriage

Don and Maxine Simpson spent more than six decades in love with each other. Now they've left the world the way they inhabited it – together.

The couple, from Bakersfield, California met in a bowling alley in the late 1940s, and passed away in adjacent beds within four hours of each other, watched over by family members, early last week.

"They left this world together," granddaughter Melissa Sloan told local news station KERO.

"It's absolutely beautiful, and the story is beautiful," she said.

“All Don wanted was to be with his beautiful wife. He adored my grandmother, loved her to the end of the Earth,” she said.

Don's health started to decline in hospital, where he was receiving treatment for a broken hip that he sustained as the result of a fall. At the same time, Maxine's condition declined – she was battling cancer.

The family arranged for Don and Maxine to move into a spare bedroom at their home.

“Gram woke up and saw him, and held hands and they knew that they were next to each other,” Ms Sloan said.

“I walked them out with her body, walked back in to check on grandpa and he quit breathing as soon as her body left the room. He left with her, and they passed four hours apart from each other,” she said.

It was a poignant and fitting end to the glorious life the couple shared.