Every day for the last two years, Warren Chapple would drive 10 miles to feed his wife breakfast and sit with her, then return home. Hours later, he would make the 10-mile drive once more to feed his wife dinner, and sit with her for three hours until she went to bed.
Warren Chapple suffered from esophageal cancer, which progressively worsened toward the end of January. Jan. 28 was the last time he was able to visit his wife, who died Sunday at Van Rensselaer Manor.
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Warren Chapple asked his son Marc about his wife’s condition after she had passed.
“She’s gone,” said Marc, as reported by the Times Union. “You can go now.”
Warren Chapple died on Monday, just a day after his wife passed.
Scientific studies have showed the “widowhood effect” is strongest three months after a person’s spouse dies — meaning couples can often feel stress or grief that causes them to get sick, and they can die.
According to the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, couples have a 66% greater chance of dying within three months of a spouse’s death. A number of factors can contribute to a couple’s death, but stress and grief can cause a spouse to literally “die of a broken heart.”
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It’s unclear if the couple knowing about one another caused their deaths, but the couple’s family spoke of their love and undeniable connection.
“He lived for my mother,” the Chapple’s son, Marc told the Times Union.
“He kept her alive with that love,” Marc’s wife, Pattie said.
For the last 34 years, the couple have called West Sand Lake home, according to the couple’s obituary.
Joan Chapple, who was born in Eaton Rapids, Mich., worked as a seamstress and homemaker. Her husband, born in Plattsburgh, was a Navy veteran and Mets fan. He worked as a service technician until he retired 30 years ago.
The couple also owned Chapple’s Woodworking and Doll Company, and operated the business together for years.
Together, Joan and Warren Chapple had two sons — and had a family that grew to include three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Warren has a brother, Emerson Chapple, who is still alive, and the couple has several surviving nieces and nephews.
After seven decades of marriage, the couple gave new meaning to the vow “until death do us part.”
“They were always together,” Pattie told Western Union of her parents-in-law. “They’re still together.”
Source: msn
