Lived long and died in one day. When love and death are like in a fairy tale

Like in a fairy tale: they lived happily ever after and died on the same day. The dream of any married couple .... American James Landis from Pennsylvania died an hour and a half after doctors pronounced the death of his wife Marjorie. The couple lived happily together for 65 years and died on the same day. The tale came true. But there are many such stories.

Marjorie passed away after prolonged illness at age 87 at Laurelwood Care Medical Center. She literally died in her husband's arms. 88 minutes later, James suffered a heart attack. The future spouses met back in 1946 at a dance. Soon the lovers got married. After the end of service in air force USA James Landis worked as an electrical engineer for about forty years.

Marjorie worked as a housewife and raised two children, and taught Sunday school on weekends. The Landys traveled extensively, visited Alaska and Hawaiian Islands. AT free time the family liked to gather at the table and play board games. They were very rarely seen gloomy, they were always cheerful and ironic, everyone could envy their sense of humor.

interesting story tells the Christian portal MirVam.org. The story is no less touching. An Iowa couple happily married for more than 72 years, and after that, as a result of a car accident, the husband and wife died on the same day. Gordon and Norma met at school. He fell in love with her when he was very young. After a marriage proposal, they married as soon as Norma graduated from high school on May 26, 1939. It was a small wedding that took place at Gordon's sister's house. They later moved to downtown Iowa. They had four sons, one of whom later died in a car accident.

Sons talk about their parents as very active people. However, according to the children, they were not similar to one another, rather, on the contrary. After the car accident, the doctors decided to put them in the same room and move the beds together so they could hold hands.

Mr. Gordon died first. Only an hour after the death of her husband Norma's heart beat. After cremation, their ashes were mixed together. Gordon and Norma have three children, 14 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. They were always cheerful and cheerful.

By the way, scientists have long been arguing about how a sense of humor affects life expectancy. Some say that only skeptics and misers live to a ripe old age, others argue that it is primarily cheerful and ironic people who can live to a ripe old age. And there is still no unequivocal answer to this question, although there are a lot of pseudo-scientific works on this subject published.

But, one way or another, sociologists conducted studies back in the days of the USSR that proved that “long-lived” happy couples very often get to know each other, as they say now, “for fun”, getting into the most sometimes ridiculous situations. Pravda.Ru commented on the situation Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor Sergey Yurlov :

"To be precise, 36 percent of couples who celebrated a silver wedding, that is, lived together for 25 years, consider themselves completely happy. And 58 percent of couples who celebrated a golden wedding, that is, lived together for 50 years. The numbers are quite high. But here's the thing : up to 80 percent of these happy couples believe that one of the main qualities that helped them keep the family together for many years was a sense of humor!

Most of the happy couples have only good, sometimes even ironic memories of their acquaintance. Here are a few such examples, so to speak, from personal professional practice. Celebrated just a month ago golden wedding The couple from Arkhangelsk met once on a train. She is the conductor of the Moscow train, he is a passenger, a demobilized soldier traveling from the capital.

The young people met when a soldier discovered that someone had stolen his wonderful demobilization boots at night! And he doesn’t even have slippers in reserve, how to get home? And laughter, and sin. The girl went through the cars, found other boots from her fellow conductors. Worn and dirty, but at least somehow the soldier could reach the house ...

On July 8, the Orthodox Church remembers the amazing saints - Peter and Fevronia. There are not many saints in the history of the Church who have become famous solely for their love and fidelity to each other. Many people call this day the Orthodox Valentine's Day, because Peter and Fevronia are the patrons of a happy marriage. And although this day is not “promoted” and not turned into a commercial project, like February 14, nevertheless, those who seek the heavenly protection of their love can safely turn to Peter and Fevronia in prayer today.

According to church tradition, Peter was the younger brother of Paul, who reigned in Murom, and married Fevronia because the beekeeper's mysterious daughter cured him of leprosy. This happened at the end of the 12th century, and the marriage of the prince to a young peasant woman caused a lot of noise and condemnation among the townspeople. But Fevronia, wise, like Vasilisa the Beautiful, knew perfectly well that the main thing for her was to own the heart of her husband. Very soon, young Fevronia became a princess, and they “began to live piously, in no way violating God’s commandments.”

However after some time, in 1204, Prince Pavel died and the young Peter was to rule Murom. The boyars had nothing against his candidacy - except for one thing: the boyar wives did not like Fevronia - a commoner. Having gathered according to the established custom, the boyars informed their prince that they themselves were not opposed to obeying him, but their wives, the boyars, did not want to obey the former peasant woman. Peter, having listened to their opinion, said: "Tell Fevronia about this, let's hear what she has to say."

Delighted boyars visited Fevronia and offered to save her life if she left her husband and left the city. “What will you let me take with me?”- asked the wise Fevronia. "We'll give you anything! - the boyars swore - take it. Anything you want, any wealth!” "Good. But I only want to take one

- her husband!

answered Fevronia. The boyars were stunned. But fearing to break their oath, they reluctantly decided: let Prince Peter make his own choice. Each of them thought that Peter could leave with his wife, and then, with a favorable confluence, any of them could reign ... Having learned about Fevronia's decision, Peter said the words of the Savior: "What God has joined together, man does not separate" and began to get ready for the journey with his beloved wife. Having gathered a few close associates, the exiled spouses sailed along the Oka wherever God would send them. On the way, Fevronia noticed on herself the characteristic sticky look of one of the escorts. “Speak to him: - says the legend -

Draw more water from the river Sia on this side of this ship.
He draws. And commanded him to drink. He's drinking. She speaks again:

• Draw plenty of water from the other side of this ship.
  He's better. And commanded him to drink more. He is drinking. She also says:
• Is it equal to the water, or is it one and the same?” (Is the water the same, or is one of them sweeter? - I.K.)
• There is only one, lady, water.
  Still, she speaks to sitse:
• And there is only one female nature. Why, after leaving your wife, are you thinking of someone else?

Hearing how wisely Fevronia caught this man, many realized that she was far from being a simple peasant woman.

Having stopped for a halt in the forest, the travelers fell asleep. Only the former prince Peter could not calm down - he grieved that he had become an exile and worried about the lost. Fevronia reassured her husband and said that God would not leave them. The next morning, Peter was able to verify this because

messengers arrived from Murom with a request to return

Peter for the princess. It turned out that the boyars started a real massacre for the princely title and bloodshed and discord began. The people, frightened by the unrest, sent messengers to Prince Peter and ordered them to pray for his return. Peter and Fevronia returned to Murom and for many years “they ruled the people, keeping all the commandments and instructions of the Lord blamelessly, praying unceasingly and doing alms to all the people who were under their rule, like a child-loving father and mother.”

When Peter and Fevronia reached old age, he became a monk. Peter lived in a male monastery, Fevronia - in a female one.

They prayed to God to grant them death one day

Tomb of Saints Peter and Fevronia

and in one hour, and also bequeathed to put their bodies in one coffin, having prepared in advance the corresponding tomb, which has a thin partition between them.

Once Peter felt that he was dying and sent a novice to a nearby monastery to his wife. At this time, Fevronia embroidered air with gold embroidery (the cover of the communion bowl). “... Let him wait, I need to finish ...”, Fevronia asked to pass. After some time, the novice again came running with the message that her husband was dying. And again Fevronia asked to wait ... And when for the third time the messenger said that the prince was leaving, Fevronia made the last stitch, stuck the needle into the sewing, wrapped the needle with gold thread and died. This happened on July 8 (according to the new style), 1228.

Having violated the will, they were buried in different coffins - because they were afraid to bury a monk and a nun in a common coffin. But the next day, their bodies miraculously ended up in the same tomb. Again and again they tried to separate the already dead spouses - but

the next morning their bodies were together again.

After that, no one dared to separate them. After more than three hundred years, the Moscow Cathedral canonized Peter and Fevronia as saints . And in 1552, Ivan the Terrible, during a campaign against Kazan, served a prayer service to Peter and Fevronia in Murom, promising to erect a stone cathedral over their relics in the event of a victory over Kazan. And the king fulfilled his promise: soon a beautiful temple was erected over the grave of the saints, and then the tsar sent to the temple an icon of Saints Peter and Fevronia, “written on gold” . Unfortunately, this temple has not been preserved. After the revolution, the tomb of Peter and Fevronia was transferred to the Murom Museum. In 1989, the shrine with the relics of the saints was returned to the church and for several years was kept in Murom's Annunciation Cathedral. In 1993, the tomb of the inseparable spouses was solemnly transferred to the Trinity Monastery.

For hundreds of years, through the prayers of the saints, many have received help:

Saints Peter and Fevronia help make marriage truly common happy life. Icons with images of these saints can be bought and given to newlyweds as an example of true and mutual marital love until the last breath.

Irina KRASNIKOVA

July 8 is the day of the glorification of Russian Orthodox saints, patrons of the family and marriage of Peter and Fevronia

On this day, near the shrine with the relics of Peter and Fevronia, in the Church of the Holy Trinity of the Holy Trinity Monastery in the city of Murom, crowds of pilgrims from various places in Orthodox Russia gather to honor the memory of the saints, to ask prayer help in strengthening your family - that very cell, without which there is no society, no nation, no state. This day in Russia is declared the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity.

The noble spouses Peter and Fevronia, as in a fairy tale, lived happily ever after and died on the same day, namely, June 25 (July 8, according to a new style), 1228. The romantic story of their love is described by the greatest author of the 16th century, Yermolai Erasmus, in the Old Russian Tale of Peter and Fevronia. According to the Tale, Prince Pavel lived in Murom with his wife, to whom a werewolf began to fly. Only the prince is beyond the threshold, like a snake in the image of her faithful husband, right there. The princess learned that the snake was destined to die at the hands of the prince's younger brother, Peter. In the end, it is Peter who kills the long-dead hero of the insidious seducer of his daughter-in-law with the sword, but the blood of the dragon that splashed on him causes a serious illness - the hands and face of the prince were covered with non-healing ulcers. Peter orders to take himself to the Ryazan land, famous for its healers. There, going into one of the chambers, his servants saw this girl - she was sitting at a loom, and a hare was jumping in front of her. Named Fevronia. She said that she was going to heal the prince, but on the condition that he would take her as his wife. The exhausted prince agrees.

The prince was cured, but he tried, it was, to back down. Well, how can he, a noble from birth, marry a commoner? But, alas, his body again becomes covered with ulcers, he again goes to this wonderful girl who helps him again. And now Peter does not dare to tempt his fate. So Fevronia becomes a princess.

In the future, the power of love between Peter and Fevronia more than once defeated the deceit and hatred of the Murom boyars, who did not want to see a village girl at the princely table.

But the story of the death of this married couple is also surprising. In their advanced years, having taken monastic vows in different monasteries with the names David and Euphrosyne, they prayed to God that they die on the same day, and bequeathed to put their bodies in one coffin, having prepared in advance a tomb of one stone, with a thin partition. And now, dying, Prince Peter sends to his wife to say that she was ready to leave this world with him. Fevronia, busy with embroidery, sticks a needle into the work, carefully folds it, lies down and dies with her husband...

Considering the burial in one coffin incompatible with the monastic rank, their bodies were laid in different monasteries, but the next day they were together. Twice their bodies were carried to different temples, but twice they miraculously ended up nearby. So they buried the holy spouses in one coffin. Prince Peter and the commoner Fevronia, united, contrary to class prejudices, by great love, remained faithful to each other not only to the grave, but also beyond the grave. And to this day they are a model of Christian marriage and, according to church tradition, with their prayers bring down the Heavenly blessing on those who marry.

Now they say that, they say, we should replace St. Valentine's Day - a holiday that came to us from the West, with our national holiday - the day of Peter and Fevronia. I don't think it will work. And if it does, it won't be right away. And not because the day of Saints Peter and Fevronia falls on the Petrovsky fast, which does not encourage fun, but, on the contrary, calls for restraint and self-restraint. Too much different holidays like the saints themselves. Valentine patronizes all lovers. So what if on this day a man will send valentines to a man, and a woman to a woman, that the wife will congratulate not her husband, but her lover, and the husband, in turn, his mistress. The conformist religion of the West does not oppose this. Love, guys, everyone who is not lazy. Another thing, Fevronia. She, like a bird at the nest, vigilantly guards the purity of marital relations, not allowing any temptations. When during her lifetime a certain man stared at her, she guessed his thought and gently reproached:

Draw water from one and the other side of the boat, - she asked, - and tell me, is the water the same or is one sweeter than the other?

The same, he replied.

So the nature of women is the same. Why do you, forgetting your wife, think about someone else?

What's it like? You can also come to St. Valentine with a request for love comforts. You cannot turn to Peter and Fevronia with such requests.

The parable immediately comes to mind, how the princely cook, who accompanied them in exile, preparing dinner, cut down two small trees and hung cauldrons on them. And when the meal was over, the princess blessed these stumps with the words: “Let them be in the morning big trees". And so it happened. By this miracle, she wanted to strengthen her husband, foreseeing their fate. And strengthened us. So we come to Peter and Fevronia not as frivolous jumping bunnies during the period of marriage games, but like stubs smoked from life, earthly and sinful fire: bless them to become bushy trees again, overcome pride, narcissism, defeat lust, restore peace and love in the soul . What kind of valentines and kisses are there.

Therefore, I think that these two holidays will exist in parallel for a long time, and each of us is free to choose for himself who to approach for blessing. To St. Valentine - those who worship the cult of the flesh, body, sensuality, to Peter and Fevronia - who profess the purity of relationships, fidelity and depth of feelings. This, alas, is not so romantic: instead of making gifts in the form of hearts or spending evenings by candlelight, go to temples and pray, and ask someone younger - oh Great love, who is older - about family consent.

Approximately 300 years after their death, in the 16th century, Peter and Fevronia were included in the Russian Orthodox Church to the saints.

Special for the Centenary

Dolores and Trent Winstead have been together for 64 years. They were together when Trent was serving in Korea when their two children, three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren were born. They literally lived soul to soul. Their life may not have been fabulous, but their relationship really was magical and extremely warm and sincere. And even when it was time to die, the couple could not be separated from each other.

Dolores and Trent Winstead began dating shortly before Trent was drafted into the army and sent to war in Korea. The guy regularly wrote long letters to her, telling her how "terribly glad to hear from her." He wanted Dolores to be his wife so badly that he proposed to her while she was brushing her teeth - how can you say no with a toothbrush in your mouth? Trent didn't want to risk it.

They were completely different: Dolores was a quiet woman, she liked being at home and cooking. Trent, on the other hand, was always on the move, full of ideas, he regularly spent his free time away from home playing golf or fishing. He worked at the factory, she taught literature. When they both retired, the couple often spent evenings together at home watching the evening news, attending church on Sundays. He called her "mother" or by her middle name Eileen, kissed her when she didn't expect it, and danced with her at the holidays. "It sounds simple, but it's so sweet," their daughter Cheryl says. - "They loved each other, and every day their love was stronger."

Trent was one of those who prefer not to go to the doctors, but to cope with all ailments on their own. "Everything will be all right," he said. But this time he felt so bad that his daughter was still able to persuade him to go to the hospital. There it turned out that Trent's kidneys were in urgent need of dialysis, but he, in turn, greatly weakened his heart. The children tried to protect Dolores from bad forecasts, but she already saw that her husband was getting worse and worse.

Dolores spent every day next to her husband, even sleeping in the intensive care unit. She was so worried about Trent that in the end, one night, she also felt bad, she began to feel sick. However, she flatly refused to leave her husband. So she fell asleep holding his hand. She had already fallen asleep in this position more than once, so no one suspected anything, only when her daughter tried to wake her mother - and could not, they sounded the alarm. Dolores, who had been completely healthy a few days before, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

Doctors could not explain how this could happen so quickly and without any prerequisites. The kids tried to explain to Trent that a tragedy had happened, but he refused to believe it. The nurse put him in a wheelchair and took him to his wife. She was still breathing, but her brain no longer gave signals. Trent was crying, shaking his wife's hand and saying, "Wake up, Eileen." He turned to the children and said through tears: "Ask God to wake her up, let him work a miracle." "Who am I going to sit on the couch with and watch the news in the evening," he added sadly.

That evening, Trent could only sleep for an hour. When he woke up, he asked, "Is Mom still breathing?" - "Yes, dad, breathes," - his daughter answered him. Seeing the deteriorating condition of both spouses, the hospital staff decided to place both patients in the same room - although this was contrary to everyone existing rules hospitals. So they lay side by side, holding hands, when Dolores suddenly stopped breathing.

For several long minutes, the children of Trent and Dolores hesitated to tell their father what had happened. Eventually, Eddie's son came up to dad and just said, "Dad, she's dead." Trent raised his hands to his face, as if blowing a kiss to his wife. "You should buy her a pink coffin and a pink dress, that's what she wanted," Trent said.

From that moment on, the children could only watch as their father's condition deteriorated rapidly. And just hours later, Trent's heart stopped. "Then I did not think about it, but it seems to me that dad's heart was literally shattered from grief."

Dolores and Trent were buried side by side, Dolores in a pink coffin, Trent in a blue one, just as they wanted. Even death could not separate them, loving hearts literally could not live without each other.

No less touching is the history of the relationship between the famous Russian poet Sergei Yesenin and Galina Benislavskaya - you can read about this in our article.

They lived happily ever after and died on the same day. Isn't that what we dream about when we decide to tie the knot? However real life little like a fairy tale, and one of the spouses sooner or later remains alone. The question is how much. Based on many examples, scientists have long concluded that the death of a loved one, for many of us, is a ticket to the next world.

Death from love is the prerogative of not only infantile teenagers with a craving for maximalism. Several decades of marriage bind people more tightly than any youthful passion. This is confirmed by the research of scientists and examples from life. A few years ago, the medical journal The Lancet published an article by specialists from the University of Utrecht (Holland), which stated that for men, the risk of dying after losing a wife increases by 21 percent, and for women who bury their husband, by 17 percent.

In November last year, the ex-prime minister of the Russian Federation died at the age of 73, former ambassador Russia in Ukraine, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for economic cooperation with the CIS member states Viktor Chernomyrdin. People from the politician's entourage said that Viktor Stepanovich was very upset by the death of his wife Valentina, who passed away a few months earlier - in March. The couple lived together for 49 years.

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"Sufficiently convincing evidence suggests that mortality among people who have lost a spouse is largely associated with the so-called "heartbreak" - a complex of psychological suffering associated with the loss loved one. The highest mortality among widowed people is observed in the first months after the tragic event, over time this figure decreases. Those who have lost a spouse recently are at greater risk of dying than long-term spouses, although an increased mortality rate may persist," the study authors write.

The Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez received in 1956 Nobel Prize in literature "for lyric poetry, a model of high spirit and artistic purity in Spanish poetry" wrote that the award rightfully belongs to his wife Zenobia. "If not for her help, not for her inspiring participation, I would not have been able to work for forty years. Now without her I am alone and helpless."

Zenobia Camprubi died all the same in 1956 from cancer, Jimenez never recovered from her death, and died two years later in the same clinic.

See also: They made their husbands presidents

Left without a soul mate, people fall into a state of depression, despair, lose their appetite. All this negatively affects their health. Men often begin to flood grief with alcohol, which further aggravates their condition.

Literal meaning acquires the expression broken heart". Scientists from Australia have found that the loss of a loved one increases the chance of a heart attack by six times. In order for the risk to decrease to its previous level, it should take about two years.

"We were able to find out that the loss of a loved one is associated with an increase blood pressure, increased heart rate and changes in the body's immune system and blood clotting. All of these indicators increase the risk of developing a heart attack," said study leader Thomas Buckley.

A total of 160 people took part in the study. Half of them mourned the loss of a partner or child, and their risk of stroke increased six times. In people aged 30 years, the risk persisted for two subsequent months, then gradually decreased until it was compared with the risk of other people after two years, "Buckley said. The mechanism of the effect of grief on cardiovascular system is unknown, it is only noticed that women are much more likely to be affected.

The strong half of humanity, as it turned out, often gets rid of grief by a “radical method”: it turned out that men over 60 years old after the loss of a wife are three times more likely to commit suicide. There is no such trend among women from the same age group.

As an example, we can cite a story that happened in January in Azerbaijan. Shafagat Ibragimov, a 73-year-old resident of the village of Abilyatag, hanged himself in a utility building in the yard of his own house.

Three months before his suicide, Shafagat Ibragimov lost his wife - a 52-year-old woman died after a long illness. After the death of his wife, the man often complained that he could not live without her.

If you think that this is not about love, but about a banal habit, then you are deeply mistaken. According to Missus. ru. contrary to popular belief that after several decades life together love leaves the relationship, leaving room for habit, spouses who declare that they still love each other are not crazy idealists. After examining the gray matter of family men with solid experience, scientists have found that love does not always go away over the years.

The experiment was fairly simple: the scientists measured the brain activity of married couples with an average "experience" of 21 years, while one of the spouses was looking at a photo of his partner.

The data obtained were compared with the results of people who fell in love quite recently, and - which was to be proved - it turned out that the brains of the subjects in both cases worked with the same intensity.

Interestingly, the presence of a loved one awakens to activity the same areas of the brain that are responsible for love for mother and father. This does not mean that partners see each other as parents - just