PHOTO: Couple Married For 64-Years Die Holding Hands On Christmas Eve

After more than 64 years of marriage, Bill and Nancy Schafrath died within five hours of each other on Christmas Eve, holding hands until the end.

“In the last couple weeks, when he couldn’t get out of bed anymore, we’d push their beds together in the middle of the room,” Pat Cornelius, the couple’s niece, said. ”… So they literally held hands for the last week of their life.”

Bill, 88, died in the 7 a.m. hour, and Nancy, 85, died after 11 a.m., both at Brookdale Senior Living in Wooster, where they lived for the past year.

“It’s almost like they decided that if one went, the other would go, too,” their nephew, John Moritz, said. “Somehow they knew.”

The couple did not have any children, “so they were exceptionally close to each other,” Cornelius said.

But Bill was one of 12 siblings, so they had many nieces and nephews, who, along with about 200 other family members and friends gathered for the couple’s funeral Mass on Thursday morning at St. Mary Catholic Church, where they attended church for their entire married life.