DEFUNIAK SPRINGS %u2013 He was quiet. She wasn%u2019t. He liked to hunt, while she loved her potted plants.
She was 16 when they met in a skating rink. They eloped in a dump truck later that year.
After 59 years of marriage, James and Lolie Brackin died Saturday morning only moments apart.
%u201CThey say when you die, you%u2019re immediately in the presence of Jesus,%u201D said their youngest daughter, Dana Troublefield. %u201CI think she got up there and said, %u2018Where%u2019s my husband?%u2019 And Jesus said, %u2018Just a minute. I%u2019m working on that.%u2019
%u201CShe didn%u2019t like to go anywhere alone,%u201D Troublefield added.
At the time of their deaths, James was 79 and Lolie three years younger. They called each other %u201CHoney%u201D so often that one of their granddaughters thought it was her grandfather%u2019s name.
They had four daughters, Carol, Debbie, Cindy and, finally Dana, who came 20 years after their first.
James told their oldest daughter, Carol Gruver, almost a decade ago that he was worried about dying first because he didn%u2019t think Lolie would be happy without him.
%u201CHe was just waiting for her to go home to heaven so he could go with her,%u201D Gruver said.
James spent more than 25 years in the Army, completing tours in Vietnam and Korea. Lolie was a homemaker, who stepped into her husband%u2019s duties during his absences and stepped back into hers when he returned.
They faced challenges over the years, but never argued in front of their children.
%u201CThey completed each other,%u201D said their third oldest, Cindy Spence. %u201CI remember as a teenager, my parents had a big Mercury station wagon. My mom would always sit next to him.
%u201CWhen they would walk somewhere, they would always hold hands.%u201D
Recent years had brought increasing health problems to the couple. Both had memory loss. He was blind and had suffered strokes. She was in a nursing home on and off for years, while he stayed at their home with their youngest daughter.
The week before the couple died, it had become obvious that he was too weak to stay at home and arrangements had been made for him to share his wife%u2019s room.
They spent one night together before they died, waking up Saturday morning and having breakfast together.
They were watching Animal Planet, one of their favorite shows, when a nurse%u2019s aide checked on them.
%u201CI%u2019m going to die today,%u201D Lolie told the aide, who asked her if she needed to go back to the hospital. No, she just felt %u201Cdifferent,%u201D Lolie told her.
When the aide came back a short time later, Lolie wasn%u2019t breathing. Moments later, they discovered James had also passed away.
The doctor said he believes James heard that his wife had died and the shock killed him.
James and Lolie had always dreamed of having a church wedding, but it never happened. They will be buried together and share a funeral service on Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of Woodlawn.
%u201CWe%u2019re going to miss them terribly, but we%u2019re glad this happened the way it did,%u201D Gruver said. %u201CHe was waiting. It%u2019s a good thing that he was in the room when she passed.%u201D
Yea - Crying at my desk... so sweet...
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