--- title: After 6 Decades of Marriage Elderly Couple Die Just Four Hours Apart | TIME description: When couples like Don and Maxine Simpson pass away just hours apart, it's usually celebrated as a sign of love, and there's research to back it up. canonical: https://time.com/video/WOLDqrh2/ og:title: After 6 Decades of Marriage Elderly Couple Die Just Four Hours Apart og:description: When couples like Don and Maxine Simpson pass away just hours apart, it's usually celebrated as a sign of love, and there's research to back it up. og:url: https://time.com/video/WOLDqrh2/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WOLDqrh2/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: After 6 Decades of Marriage Elderly Couple Die Just Four Hours Apart twitter:description: When couples like Don and Maxine Simpson pass away just hours apart, it's usually celebrated as a sign of love, and there's research to back it up. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/WOLDqrh2/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # After 6 Decades of Marriage Elderly Couple Die Just Four Hours Apart > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: After 6 Decades of Marriage Elderly Couple Die Just Four Hours Apart [Watch (HLS stream): After 6 Decades of Marriage Elderly Couple Die Just Four Hours Apart](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WOLDqrh2.m3u8) (1:42)  _Published 2014-08-04. When couples like Don and Maxine Simpson pass away just hours apart, it's usually celebrated as a sign of love, and there's research to back it up._ --- Jul 27, 2023 5:05 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [First Couples Say 'I Do' in Taiwan After Same-Sex Is Marriage Legalized](/video/yW969hau/) ### First Couples Say 'I Do' in Taiwan After Same-Sex Is Marriage Legalized [Texas Newlyweds Die in Helicopter Crash Just Hours After Their Wedding](/video/AXSndpS1/) ### Texas Newlyweds Die in Helicopter Crash Just Hours After Their Wedding [Older Couples Are Increasingly Living Apart. Here’s Why](/video/dcgDXH37/) ### Older Couples Are Increasingly Living Apart. Here’s Why --- ## Transcript An elderly couple's sweet love story in Bakersfield, California, is getting national attention. Don and Maxine Simpson made the promise til death do us part when they were young, but the phrase gained new meaning this week when the two died just four hours apart. Instead of mourning, the Simpson family is choosing to celebrate their love. All Don ever wanted was to be with his beautiful wife, he adored my grandmother, loved her to the end of the Earth. Don and Maxine were married just a few months after they met and were together 62 years. Maxine had been battling cancer all this year and two weeks ago, Don broke his hip. But the couple's granddaughter, Melissa Sloan, found a way to keep the two together as their health deteriorated. Sloan cleared out a spare bedroom and put two beds together so the couple could speak and hold hands. Maxine was the first to pass away. Elderly couples dying around the same time isn't unheard of, and it's usually celebrated. As a sign of love. He never knew that she left and she never knew that he was gone. Earlier this year, Tom and Naomi Shirley, after 45 years of marriage, died just ten minutes apart. And oddly enough, there's research that says dying of a broken heart is a real thing. According to NBC, scientists say the death of a spouse can lead to a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline, which can cause the left side of the heart to suddenly balloon in size. Recent studies in the Journal of Nursing Research and the New England Journal of Medicine. Found that the elderly are more likely to pass away shortly after their spouses, though not always as close together as the Simpsons. 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