Sometimes love is so powerful, not even death can stand in its way.
That was the case for Brazilian couple Italvino and Diva Poss. After 65 years of marriage, the couple died recently lying side-by-side in the same hospital room a mere 40 minutes apart, reports Express UK.
Eighty-nine-year-old Italvino had been battling leukemia since last August. Diva was undergoing chemotherapy for a tumor found in April. Last week, when her condition deteriorated, Diva called her entire family to come see her.
"She felt that her time was coming and asked to see her relatives," said the couple's grandson Rafael Max. "My grandfather went to [her room in the] hospital too. They had a private conversation together and after that they both seemed at peace with everything."
That's when the nurses decided to put Italvino, who was also staying in the hospital, in the vacant bed next to Diva and push them together so the couple could hold hands -- but it was Italvino who died first.
"After he died my aunt whispered in my grandmother's ear that my grandfather had passed away in peace," Rafael explained. "At that moment she became more peaceful. It was as if he had opened the doors for her to go to, as if he was arranging for them both to be together forever." She died within the hour.
Italvino and Diva's love story began in 1948, when the couple met at a dance. According to Rafael, Italvino knew he would marry Diva from the moment they met: "[My grandfather] always said that they had been married for a year longer, because he counted it from the day they met. He considered their marriage one eternal date."
During their marriage, which lasted nearly seven decades, the couple had 10 children and 14 grandchildren. Members of the family told Express UK that their grandparents' marriage was as romantic as they come. The couple never spent a day apart, and Italvino cooked his wife breakfast everyday and even grew her favorite vegetables.
"I've never seen anything like it," Rafael said.
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