After 71 years of marriage, a husband and wife passed away on the same day

After 71 years of sharing a happy marriage, this husband and wife remained head over heels in love – so much, that they knew nothing could ever tear them apart, not even death.

In this age of modern dating and instant gratification, we often don’t hear about great love stories anymore – the ones that could melt even the hardest of hearts. Sometimes, this lack of inspiration could lead most of us to believe that true love doesn’t exist and that it is merely a fantasy.

But this story about an elderly couple might just change that.

Herbert DeLaigle, 94, and Marilyn Frances DeLaigle, 88, have been in a happy marriage for 71 years. For seven decades, they built their life together and filled it with laughter and love. The husband and wife’s bond was so strong, that they knew they couldn’t bear to be apart from each other for too long.

Herbert passed away at 2:20 am on a Friday. Then, exactly 12 hours after, he was followed by Frances who died at 2:20 pm that afternoon.

The couple’s love story began when they met at a Waynesboro cafe named White Way Cafe. They were both very young then – Frances being 16 and Herbert being 22.

“I kept seeing her going in and out, in and out and I had my eyes set on her. And then I finally got up the nerve to ask her if she would go out with me sometime,” Herbert DeLaigle said in his interview last year with WRDW/WAGT.

Frances agreed, and they spent their first date at the movies. A year later, Herbert realized that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Frances. So he asked her to marry him.

“I asked her will she have me as her husband and she said, of course,” Herbert said.

It was an easy yes, but the wedding almost didn’t happen, with Frances saying that Herbert “was always late.”

According to Herbert, the preacher almost didn’t marry them because they were an hour late to the church. But they were able to convince him, and the preacher rushed through the service.

“$5 is all I paid for her,” Herbert said jokingly.

Frances said that her husband’s sense of humor kept her laughing all the time, plus, he “was always loving and patient and good-hearted.” Their secret to a long and happy marriage was simple, that is to always “show your love” and “be there for each other.”

The couple is survived by their six children, 16 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.

Watch the video below from CBS News to know more about Frances and Herbert’s great love story.