After nearly 50 years married, Patricia and Leslie McWaters died within seconds of each other after the couple contracted the coronavirus.
“They did almost everything together, so it should be no surprise that they went to be with the Lord together within the very same minute,” an obituary for the Michigan couple read. “The hospital staff that cared for them, as they lost their battle to Covid, said it was too close to call. They recorded their deaths at the exact time.”
The couple, married since 1973, died on Nov. 24 at Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital, according to the Detroit Free Press. Patricia worked at Foote Allegiance Hospital for 35 years as a nurse in the OR, according to the obituary. Leslie, also known as “LD,” was a truck driver. (RELATED: Gov. Whitmer Announces New Restrictions As Virus Cases Surge Across The State)
One of the couple’s daughters, Joanna Sisk, told the Detroit Free Press her parents likely contracted the virus while dining out at restaurants, noting she wishes her parents would’ve stayed home but her parents didn’t think staying home all the time was part of living.
However, Sisk said after the couple came down with the virus, which sent them to the hospital at the same time, they regretted not being more careful, according to the report.
“People should be worried, and they should be concerned and take it seriously,” Sisk said of the virus, according to the Detroit Free Press. “It’s not difficult, when you have to run to Meijer to put a mask on and do the things that need to be done. I don’t want one other family to have to go through what our family has had to go through.”
Patricia and Leslie McWaters spent 47 years together, raising their children, then grandchildren and then great-grandchildren.
And last week, they died together of Covid-19, within the same minute. https://t.co/mU2M2rsRkW
— CNN (@CNN) December 1, 2020
Sisk told The Detroit News that her father wasn’t aware that his wife had passed after Patricia’s condition worsened.
“I had been in my dad’s room earlier, and he communicated just fine; he just said he was in pain. He said people don’t understand how painful it is to try to breathe with this thing. It was awful,” Sisk said, according to the report. “‘He never knew that my mother passed. Neither of them knew … They’re in heaven together now, though. I know they are.”
Sisk said within a week of being at the hospital, her parents “went to heaven together,” according to the Detroit Free Press.
Sisk described the couple as what could only be described as a match made in heaven, according to The Detroit News.
“For being such opposites, they really worked nicely together,” she told the paper. “My mom was bossy, but he let her be. He’d give her the business back, but in the end she’d work it out her way.”
The couple met at Julie’s Bar, where they frequented over the years, according to their obituary. LD described Pat as “the most beautiful woman ever,” noting how good she looked “in hot pants and go-go boots!” according to the obituary.
The couple is survived by their two daughters, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.