My mother and father died exactly 2 weeks apart. Mom went first and Dad followed. Both were 91 years old. It was overwhelming for our family but a beautiful ending to 67 years of marriage.
My grandmother died 5 years after my grandfather. She passed away a block away from my grandfather in a neighboring apartment. It was a couple days after his passing’s anniversary.
A really young nurse I once worked with had a stroke. Her mother flew in from Canada to be with her. Within days, she too, had a stroke. Both recovered, but it was eerily coincidental.
My parents have been together since grade school. I dread the day one has to try to carry on without the other. As hard as it would be for our family if they both went together, I, too, feel it would be a beautiful ending.
My mother died 13 weeks before my father. Hugs to all.
On the other end of the spectrum, my mom has been a widow for 42 years (lost both parents, husband and only sibling within a span of ten years back then). I think she is a force of nature.
My mom told the story of her maternal grandmother, who was diagnosed with through cancer sometime in the early part of the 20th century (I am guessing around 1910), and they gave her 6 months to a year to live. She lived on for almost 20 years, and my mom claimed it was because she had to take care of her grandfather (who among other things, was an alcoholic) and that she died a month or two after he passed on. I thought she was lying, but I think it was when my mother’s brother passed away, we were at the cemetery for the funeral, and we found their grave stones nearby, and sure enough, the story was true, she had died shortly after her husband.