Gordon Yeager was ninety-four years old and probably shouldn't have been driving. There was pending action by the state of Iowa to have his driver license taken away. I can understand him wanting to hold on to it though. Driving means freedom. Not driving means part of his life would end though he is still alive. Emotion doesn't always prove responsible. (I am over fifty and have yet to open any AARP mail directed to me, as if opening it admits something I'd rather not.) I get it.

His wife, Norma Yeager, was ninety. She was sitting in the passenger seat as Gordon pulled away from a stop sign too soon. There was a car traveling westbound...and then a horrendous collision.

The driver of the other car was okay, while his passenger-his wife-was critical but stable.

Gordon and Norma were rushed to a hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, not too far from their home.

They had been married for seventy-two years. That's not a misprint...seventy-two years. Their wedding date was May 26, 1939. According to their children, Norma was quite the hostess over the years. They said that the more she did, the more she smiled. Gordon, on the other hand, was the life of every party his wife threw. He was more gregarious, kind of an attention hound. (I wouldn't know anything about that.)

They argued now and then like all couples do, but the kids said they loved being together. They believed literally in "until death do we part."

They were both brought into the hospital ICU. Sadly, their wounds were mortal...they were going to die. In the ICU they were placed next to each other, close enough that they could hold hands. And they did.

Gordon died at 3:38 in the afternoon.

Strangely, he stopped breathing but still had a pulse. Puzzled, a family member asked a nurse how that could be. The nurse explained that because they were holding hands, Norma's heartbeat was going through Gordon's body and registering as a faint pulse.

Norma died seventy minutes later, at 4:48PM.

This article is not a treatise on marriage. I'm not good enough at that to have a treatise. Nor is it a plea for long-lasting marriages or a diatribe about the state of marriage today. Of this, I have little opinion.

But I do have an opinion on this: We are social creatures. We all have a great longing and need for others. We need affection and to offer affection. Few human beings thrive in isolation.

Life, at its best, is one great big cooperative event...we are most happy when it is so. I need you, you need me. When I'm down, you lift me. When you're down, I lift you.

Look at the people around you. They are just like you. They put on great airs, but they are just the same. Same needs. Same wants.

"Lean on me," so the song goes, "when you're not strong, and I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry on. For it won't be long, 'til I'm gonna need somebody to lean on."