After 61 years of marriage, Donald and Ruth Long achieved what most couples dream of: less than one day as a couple without each other.
Donald Wayne Long and Ruth Stuart Long died Monday from natural causes. The couple died within 21 hours of each other at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.
"We consider it a miracle," daughter [my aunt] Susan Garfield said. "You couldn't have written a love story more beautiful."
Twenty-year-old Don and 18-year-old Ruth met on a blind date in San Diego, California in 1940. They dated a few times before Don, enlisted in the U.S. Navy. shipped out.
After writing love letters for a year, Don came home and met Ruth at the bus stop. On the walk home, Don asked Ruth if she could bake bread. She said she could. That was enough for Don, who then said, "Then I can't think of a single reason we shouldn't get married."
So they did. They wed on June 7, 1941 in Yuma, Arizona, to avoid a waiting period required in California.
After two weeks of marriage, he shipped out again, heading eventually to the Aleutian Islands and the South Pacific. The couple relocated 26 times in six years.
For a time, they lived in an abandoned service station where they nailed crates to the walls to create shelves, and tacked sheets over the windows for curtains.
In 1947, with two young daughters and another on the way, Ruth told Don she wanted a permanent home in Utah.
Don consented and they moved to the home in Spanish Fork where they would spend the rest of their lives, rearing three daughters and two sons [one is my dad] along the way.
Don seldom missed a day of work at Geneva Steel. Ruth packed him a lunch every morning.
In their golden years, Don remained healthy, but Ruth developed kidney problems. She was on dialysis for about three years.
Don took care of Ruth, cooking, cleaning, and giving doses of daily medication.
On days when Ruth went to dialysis, Don would pack a lunch for his wife. With tender care he lightly toasted bread so it wouldn't be soggy. He always tucked in red grapes, a pickled egg, and half a pickle.
Last Wednesday, Don went to the hospital for tests. He learned he'd suffered a broken hip. That wasn't all. He also had lung and bone cancer.
On Sunday, Garfield [my aunt again] took her mother to the hospital to treat an infection. At 1:15 a.m. Monday, her mother began to fade.
Garfield quickly summoned her father to his wife's bedside. His own hospital bed rolled next to his wife's, Don grabbed his beloved Ruth's hand. He said, "I love you, " and bade her a tearful goodbye. The nursed outside the door wept.
Later that day, back in his own room, Don's kidneys failed. Doctors suspended care at 4 p.m., expecting him to live another two or three days.
About 11 p.m. on the day his wife died, Don also died.
"I think he just didn't want to be here with out mom around, " Garfield said. "I think mom was telling him, 'Hurry up! Come on, Don, get a move on.' "
Don loved to hunt and fish. Ruth loved to paint and sew. Sometimes they argued. Sometimes they laughed.
Their children watched them love each other, build a life, and nurture a family. Family members say it is hard to talk about Ruth without talking about Don, and vice versa.
"It seems so right," Garfield said. "I couldn't have prayed for it to be any better."
It was hard to lose both my Grandma and my Grandpa at the same time, but what a legacy of love they left. A beautiful ending to a beautiful love story.
