A poignant
photo has emerged which shows an elderly couple who were married for 75
years fulfilling their final wishes to die together. Jeanette
Toczko, 96, and her 95-year-old husband, Alexander Toczko, from San
Diego, California, died just hours apart as they held hands in bed. The pair spent their lives in love after becoming boyfriend and girlfriend when they were only eight years old.
But
several weeks ago, Mr Toczko suffered a broken hip in a fall and was
left bed-bound. A local hospice delivered a special bed to his home,
which staff pushed up next to his beloved wife's bed.
As
Mr Toczko's condition quickly declined, Mrs Toczko's own health took a
turn for the worse. The couple had always said they wished to die 'in
their own bed, holding hands, in each other's arms'.
And in
scenes reminiscent of the 2004 film The Notebook, they passed away while
clutching hands earlier this month: Mr Toczko on June 17, as he lay
beside his wife; and Mrs Toczko, the next day.
The
couple's daughter, Aimee Toczko-Cushman, described the moment she told
her mother she had lost her husband, who kept a photo of Mrs Toczko at
her Holy Communion in his wallet. 'I told my mother he was gone,' she told 10 News
'She hugged him and she said, "See this is what you wanted. You died in
my arms and I love you. I love you, wait for me, I'll be there soon".'
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Childhood sweethearts: Jeanette and Alexander Toczko (both pictured above), aged 96 and 95 respectively
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Mrs
Toczko-Cushman, and the couple's other children, Donna Tang, Richard
Toczko, Lynne Edwards and Andra Toczko, then left the room, to allow
their mother to say a private goodbye.
And less than 24 hours later, Mrs Toczko herself passed away.
'Even
the hospice nurse said it was the most incredible thing to see the two
of them taking those last breaths together,' Ms Toczko-Cushman said of
her parents, both born in Stamford, Connecticut.
