Longtime married couple die within minutes of each other

Family members say a Pennsylvania couple who had been married for almost 45 years died within minutes of each other.

Clair “Cos” Vance had made daily visits to a care center where his 70-year-old wife, Jeanne, lived because of mobility and medical problems. But those visits stopped last week when he developed a flu-like illness and was hospitalized.

As his condition worsened, Jeanne spoke with her 75-year-old husband on the phone. She last spoke to him minutes before he died Sunday night.

One of the couple’s daughters was with her father when he died. She asked her aunts to go to the care center and tell her mother of his death.

But when they arrived, they found Jeanne Vance dead in her room.

The couple will be buried together on Friday.