Love is patient. Love is kind. And mostly, love is what makes our time on Earth all the more precious. When our lives come to an end, all we can hope is that we have loved and been loved in return. For one couple, married nearly 69 years, only had one wish – to spend their last days together.

When Tommy Stevens’ health started declining, the 91-year-old was moved to a memory care center, which was better equipped to handle his advancing Alzheimer’s. The center was inside the assisted living facility where he had been living with his wife, Virginia, 91.

Tommy and Virginia had met when they both attended school together, becoming highschool sweethearts. The pair went on to go to the same college and then got married on Sept. 9th, 1954.

As so many did during that time, Tommy went on to serve as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. When he was done with service, he went on to found a distribution and transportation service. Virginia, in addition to working with Tommy, helped raise their two children, Karen Kreager and Greg Stevens.

When the couple were ready to retire, they moved to a town outside of Nashville to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Once Tommy was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the couple moved to an assisted living facility, and settled into a new chapter of their lives together. 

When Tommy began having breathing trouble, he was taken to Vanderbilt hospital. But soon it was apparent that treatment was failing, and he was moved to the hospital’s palliative care unit. Karen Kreager, their daughter, said that the morning that Tommy was taken into the hospital, Virginia fell, breaking six ribs, fracturing her spine and injuring her hip. 

The family teased her about how it must have been because she didn’t want to leave Tommy’s side. “Really, we think that you just needed to check on Dad, and that was your ride,” Kreager remembered teasing her mom at the time. But having two parents in two different parts of the hospital was taking a toll on the family.

Hospital staff saw this and decided to make a change. At first, they moved Virginia to a room next to Tommy’s. But soon after, they moved a bed for her into Tommy’s room, so that Virginia could comfort her husband. Virginia told hospital staff that

“It helped me a lot. It just gave me peace that I wouldn’t have to worry about him. He was going to be with me.” “He was awake when she (first) came in,” Kreager said of her father. “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.”

The couple, and their family, talked about the memories they had of vacations and holidays. “We were able to focus on both of them at the same time versus having to worry about going back and forth,” Kreager said. “And the most important thing for us was that they were together.”

Dr. Mohana Karlekar, the medical director of the adult Palliative Care Program, remembered Virginia holding Tommy’s hand and lovingly fussing over him. “(Virginia) was able to tell me … that she was at peace with what was going on, and she wanted to be there until the end,” Karlekar said.

Virginia Stevens spends time with her granddaughter, sitting, and daughter, Karen Kreager. Photo by Erin O. Smith

When Tommy died on Sept. 8, one day before the couple’s 69th anniversary, Virginia was by his side. 

The family then had to deal with their next loss – Virginia passed away 9 days later. But they found a way to soften their grief by recognizing that she had followed the love of her life as she always had – death hadn’t stopped that.

In Virginia’s obituary they wrote: “What a love story. In life, in death, in life eternal. Together.

Sources: People | Tennessean