‘I Can’t Go Till She Goes:’ Couple Married 63 Years Dies Hours Apart

By Margo Gothelf 2 min read

Meet Helen and Donald Thomas, a loving couple who died just hours apart from one another.

79-year-old Helen Thomas passed away on Tuesday after suffering a battle with lung cancer. Shortly after Helen died, her husband Donald passed away as well. He died just hours later also struggling from a long battle with lung cancer.

“They done everything together,” Roger Thomas, their son, told Inside Edition. “That’s the way they wanted to go out. Together. It’s no surprise that it happened that way, really.”

Helen and Donald did everything together. Even during their battles with lung cancer, they suffered similar symptoms.

“One’s sick, the other one’s sick. One had a hard time breathing, the other was having a hard time breathing,” Roger Thomas explained to Inside Edition. “They lived their lives so together and so close.”

Both Helen and Donald were diagnosed with lung cancer just last year. Donald had ben struggling with COPD leading up to his diagnosis.

“We don’t know what got dad — if it was the cancer, or COPD, or giving up,” Roger Thomas said to Inside Edition.

Helen and Donald were married for over six decades. The couple met when Helen was just 15 years old and Donald was in the military. They lived with Donald’s parents to save up money and eventually they moved into a house of their own.

The couple had two sons, four grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.

“They had the perfect love,” Charles Thomas, another son, told WVLT TV. ”Sixty-three years they were married. I only remember maybe once or twice they had a little spat in my entire life.”