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Couple married 70 years die hours apart

NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y. — A New York couple married for 70 years died just hours apart at their assisted living residence on Tuesday.

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William Bauer and his 92-year-old wife, Ruth, went to bed Monday night, but Ruth never woke up, WABC reported. About 11 hours later William died. He was 97.

"We ran over there and held my father's hand. You could just tell he wasn't going to last long so we took shifts sitting there holding his hand," son Tom Bauer told WABC. "He hung right on to the end. I think he knew if he passed away first, she wouldn't do as well without him.

"He did know that she did pass away. He almost felt that it's OK to go now."

The New York City natives and longtime New Hyde Park residents met in the early 1940s at a bank where they both worked.

They married in 1946 after William Bauer returned from serving with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II.

They will be buried Friday at Long Island National Cemetery. Their survivors include their three children and five grandchildren.

"It's very comforting to us to know that they were together, they lived together, they died together," Tom Bauer told WABC.