A Polk County couple died just two days apart and their family believes the cause is a broken heart.
Until death do us part is a vow Herbert and Myrtle Birdsong took more than 70 years ago when they got married. Their family says they stuck to those vows to the very end.
“I truly believe they both did die from broken hearts,” their daughter, Melanie Justice said.
Justice said her mother died on Sunday. It was news that was just too much to bear for her 89-year-old father who was already in the hospital.
“They did tell him that she had died and there was a tear that came out,” she said.
Her father passed away just two days later.
“You spend 71 years together. I wouldn’t be able to live without my husband either,” said the couple’s granddaughter, Sherri Hanson said.
The sadness of the couple’s death was replaced with laughter and celebration of their lives and their love for each other.
Their granddaughter Sherri Hanson said she thanks her grandparents for her marriage.
“I remember when I told my grandmother I was getting married and she said she had been praying for you to have a husband like that," said Hanson. "A husband that would love you. So for someone to pray for me to have a marriage like theirs is unreal."
It’s a marriage and a love this family says they will continue to use as an example whenever it comes to matters of the heart.
The family said Herbert actually died from complications of cancer and their mother had bleeding on her brain. But they believe the timing of it all was the result of a broken heart.
The couple’s funeral is on Saturday at 11 a.m. at First Church of God, in Ft. Meade.