A devoted husband who told his wife "close your eyes, I'm coming with you" moments before she passed away died just hours later - from a broken heart
Loving George Pitman, 77, kept a week-long bedside vigil after Pat, his wife of 55-years, was admitted to hospital with a shadow on her lung.
The great grandfather was seriously ill himself but ignored advice from doctors to go to a different hospital for treatment - and remained steadfast at his wife's side.
Nurses prepared a bed alongside 77-year-old Pat, where George could be treated, but as he was wheeled in it became clear his wife was in her final moments.
The doting great grandfather held his wife's hand as she slipped away and whispered "I'm coming with you" and the retired HGV driver - affectionately known as 'Rocky" - died of a broken heart 21 hours later after suffering an aneurysm in his chest.
Their devastated daughter Jacqueline Gofton, 55, who is preparing to say their goodbyes at a heartbreaking joint funeral, said they all took comfort in the fact that the pair were inseparable in death as they had been throughout their lives.
She said: "They spent their whole lives inseparable, so this is what they would have wanted.
"If they had been given a choice, this is the one they would have chosen. Dad died of a broken heart.
"It is just unbelievable how this has happened. Normally there is just one funeral to arrange, but everything is double. Even when we registered the deaths, we had to go through everything twice.
"In circumstances like this I always thought you could ask your mam what you should do, or your dad if it was the other way round. But we have lost them both. It's as if they knew though.
"When we came back to their house he next day, Dad had put a box on the bed with all of the birth certificates in and all of the legal documents.
"It's all a bit surreal, we keep expecting to wake up from it all and I still don't think it has actually sunk in yet.
"They were young at heart, they adored their grandkids and spent three nights a week down at the bowls club having a couple of drinks and playing bingo.
"They had such a large circle of friends and they will be sorely missed by us all."
Pat, from Middlesbrough, was admitted to the University Hospital of North Tees, Cleveland, on November 13 after medics detected a shadow on her lung.
Despite being told he was critically ill, George refused to go to James Cook Hospital, 10 miles away in Middlesbrough. He passed away around 1pm on November 20.
The couple had five children, Jacqueline, Angela Gould, 53, Deborah Willis, 51, 50-year-old Paul and Gillian Cormack, 47, along with 14 grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.
They met on a blind date and married on Valentine's Day 1959.
Angela, a practitioner for Hartlepool Borough Council, said: "After they met, dad had to go to Hong Kong for his national service.
"When he came back from Hong Kong after two years, he came straight back for her. He'd written her every week and sent presents.
"They really were inseparable, they were never apart. It seems fitting that they even died together."
The couple have been brought back to the home they shared in Middlesbrough for 45 years and will take their final journey at noon on Friday in the same hearse.