True love that lasts decades isn't easy to find. People who hit milestone wedding anniversaries like 20 or 30 years are pretty darn impressive these days. They say that love can conquer all, and in the case of an elderly couple in Tennessee, that was true.
Doyle Thomas "Tommy" Stevens and Virginia Stevens, both 91, were married for 69 years when the pair both became ill and had to be separated. While they were apart, their hearts were broken, so the palliative care team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center devised a plan to get them back together.
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Tommy suffered a long illness.
Tommy had Alzheimer's disease and lived in a memory care facility with his wife, according to an article in the VUMC Voice. Tommy became gravely ill with labored breathing, pneumonia, and sepsis, VUMC explained. "When illness overwhelmed his body to the point treatment was no longer effective, he was moved to the medical center's palliative care unit." The same day he was admitted to VUMC, Virginia fell and wound up in the same hospital.
Perhaps it was more than a coincidence.
The couple's son, Greg Stevens, joked that his mother was lonely. "Really, we think that you just needed to check on Dad, and that was your ride," he told the VUMC Voice. Virginia was injured badly, suffering six broken ribs, a spinal fracture, and an injured hip. She was admitted to the trauma ICU.
"You know, she's really pretty superhuman," said Karen Kreager, the couple's daughter. "The doctors have all said that you look at her chart, and then come in and look at her and you're like, 'Really? Is this the same person?'"
VUMC knew the couple was good for one another.
It was clear to medical staff that Virginia and Tommy needed to be back together for their sake and to make things more convenient for their families. So the facility got Virginia a room next to Tommy's in the palliative care unit and scooted the beds of the pair together in the same room. They were able to hold hands and protect each other.
"You know, it helped me a lot," Virginia told the VUMC Voice. "It just gave me peace that I wouldn't have to worry about him. He was going to be with me."
The pair lived happily together until Tommy died in early September.
Kreager said her parents were at peace back together.
"He was awake when she came in," she said. "His eyes were open. He wasn't communicating a lot — just in small whispers. But he knew that she was there and that she was going to be right beside him. They [didn't stop] holding hands the whole time."
His obituary stated that he died September 8, "peacefully after a long illness surrounded by his devoted wife, Virginia, and his loving family."
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Virginia died less than two weeks later.
Tommy's beloved wife joined her husband in heaven on September 17. The pair apparently couldn't bear to be separated.
"Virginia and Tommy were married 69 years on September 9, 2023. Her husband, Tom passed away on September 8, 2023, one day before their 69th anniversary. What a love story. In life, in death, in life eternal. Together," her obituary reads.
Kreager said the last days of her father's life with her mother were beautiful. "We were able to focus on both of them at the same time versus having to worry about going back and forth," she told the VUMC Voice. "And the most important thing for us was that they were together."
