After being married for 63 years, one South Dakota couple died only minutes apart in the same room. Henry and Jeanette De Lange both died on July 31st in what sounds like the story of the Notebook movie in real life.
Jeanette De Lange was 87 years old, and passed away at 5:10 p.m. with her family surrounding her reading the Bible. She had been suffering with Alzheimer’s disease, and was placed in the nursing home.
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“We read Psalm 103. We didn’t quite get done,” one of Jeanette and Henry’s five children, Lee De Lange recalled. “She passed away very, very peacefully. Incredibly peacefully.”
Once Jeanette had passed, Lee said that his brother told his father, 86-year-old Henry De Lange, “mom’s gone to heaven.” Henry had been fighting from prostate cancer, and Lee’s brother told Henry that he didn’t have to fight anymore. He could let go, and join Jeanette if he wished.
At 5:30 p.m., only 20 minutes later, Henry De Lange did just that. Briefly before he died, Henry took one last glance at Jeanette, and then closed his eyes for the last time.
“We’re calling it a beautiful act of God’s providential love and mercy,” Lee stated. “You don’t pray for it because it seems mean but you couldn’t ask for anything more beautiful.”
Lee remembered his parents by stating: “As a couple, they loved each other a lot and they were both devoted to Christ. They both served the church in whatever way they could, they went to their children’s and grandchildren’s activities as much as they could and traveled some. They had a full and blessed life.”
The funeral was held in Platte, South Dakota on Monday for the couple.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the De Lange family, and we appreciate their willingness to share this incredible story.
