Posted on 05/19/2012 12:30:39 PM PDT by freedumb2003
The love affair of Erne and Nita James lasted 69-and-a-half years. It is the kind of marriage a fairytale book couldn't do justice.
"I can't picture one without the other, they were truly one," said Jessica Baldridge, the couple’s daughter.
"My dad loved my mom more than he loved himself," said Regina James, their other daughter.
Erne and Nita were high school sweethearts who gave 100 percent every day of their lives to one another.
In February, life got a lot harder, Nita was diagnosed with a brain tumor, but you'd never know it.
Every morning she had an anthem of hope: "'Well today I'm great.' She followed that every morning saying, 'I'm super great,'" Baldridge recalled.
But the cancer did not go away.
Erne held tight day after day at her bedside, lying next to his wife, loving her until she passed.
"He always expressed how he hoped they would go together, but if not, he wanted to live just one day longer," James said.
Twenty-six hours later, family members said his prayers came true.
Although healthy, Erne died of a broken heart.
For their children, at first it was shock; then peace as they arrived at the hospital to news they never expected.
"I said, 'Well, we know the routine, we did this just yesterday with our mom,'” Baldridge said. “She said, 'What you may not know is we are transporting your mom right now.' So they go to ride in the vehicle together to their final resting place. And when that happened, we all had so much peace."
Erne and Nita were together until the end.
For better, for worse, not even letting death keep them apart.
God bless them both and their family.
wish mine was like that. A good marriage was my deepest desire.
having been married for around 40 years, it’s God’s gift.
When I was just a little girl, there was an elderly couple in our neighborhood. The type of couple that did everything together.. shopped, took walks, even picked up sticks from the yard. When you saw one, you saw the other. The wife passed away suddenly. The neighbors tried to help the husband as much as possible by dropping off casseroles, calling to ask if he needed anything at the store or even offering for him to come to dinner. He declined any sort of offer to go out because each morning, he got his lawn chair and a thermos of coffee. He would go to the cemetery and sit.. all day.. just he and his deceased wife. We would see him come home in the evening and go out the next morning. It wasn’t a big surprise when we learned they found him.. deceased, sitting in the lawn chair next to his wife’s head stone. He had passed within a few weeks of her. The coroner report stated heart attack but we knew differently. Even as a child, I knew they were together again... happy.
Been married for 33 years and cannot fathom life without the love of my life...
I would be heartbroken...
OMG, your story brought tears to my eyes!
In the winter when the cemetery was closed he walked in and then came back and sat in the car for hours. The snow crews carved him out a space with their plows so he could pull up to the cemetery.
Hadn't seen him for a while. Went to the grave site, he is now buried next to his son.
The couple in our rural neighborhood farmed, gardened, entertained folks, and fished together. One early spring day they were found back in the pasture. The husband in the pickup and the wife on the ground. It appeared the husband had a heart attack while the wife was feeding a bucket of feed to the cows. The shock then got her too before she could get to the house. In some ways, a very good way to go. Together.
I died once of a broken heart.
why some people get to have it and others are devastated when they try I will never understand
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