TIFFIN, Ohio (AP) — A couple married for 69 years died eight hours apart in hospice care in northwest Ohio, and their son says it wasn’t surprising for a pair who did everything together.

88-year-old Gene Warrington and his 86-year-old wife, Pat, died Dec. 27 in Findlay.

A day earlier, Warrington had been able to visit his wife’s room and hold her hand. Phil Warrington says his father recognized that Pat was in critical condition and pulled out his own intravenous tubes the next day. Eight hours after Gene died, his wife passed away.

Phil Warrington says his parents met in junior high school, wed as teenagers and were nearly inseparable, even in failing health. Given that, he says the ending of their love story was almost predictable.