Old Saudi couple die minutes apart

Manama: A Saudi couple who were married for at least seven decades died within minutes of each other.

The husband, more than 100 years old, collapsed and died as he was getting ready to go to the mosque. His wife, in her 90s, who witnessed the drama, sought to help him, but she too collapsed and died within minutes, in an amazing indication of togetherness both in life and in death.

“My grandfather and grandmother have been inseparable for decades,” their grandson told local news site Sabq. “They were the first to live in this village. In fact, when they built their home, it was the only one here. They had no neighbour. Their family gradually grew to reach more than 200 children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren who constituted the population of the village,” he said

The grandson said that his grandparents had often said that they were so inseparable that they wanted to die together after living together for a long time.

“When I last visited them three days before their death, I heard them repeat the same wish about dying together. They were true soul mates,” he said in his remarks published on Thursday.

Online readers paid rich tribute to the couple.