Couple Dies Hours Apart, 'It Was Like He Was Holding On For Her'

Couple's 'Real Life Love Story' Is Just Like 'The Notebook'

Love can do incredible things -- like allow a long-married couple, each on the verge of death, just enough time to spend their last moments together.

Eighty-year-old Billy Grimes and 79-year-old Dolly Grimes married in 1955 (photo below) and had eight children together within eight years. Their love remained strong until the end; the couple died together on March 15 at Fazakerley hospital in the UK, reports the Liverpool Echo.

billy dolly

Billy was admitted to the hospital at the end of February after a heart attack and kidney failure. Then, a few weeks later, Dolly suddenly fell ill too and doctors estimated she had just 24 hours to live.

In what appeared to be their final hours, the hospital moved Dolly to her husband's ward so they could be together.

"We knew dad was dying but he hung on to see mum one last time. And as soon as she came around the corner he died, it was like he was holding on for her," Dolly Maxwell, the couple's daughter, told the Daily Mail.

Dolly died a few hours later.

"I don’t think either one would have been able to cope without the other," Maxwell said. "'Everybody keeps saying how surreal it is that they died on the same day. It is a real life love story."

billy dolly

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