Johnny Lee Peoples, 67, and his wife Cathy Darlene Peoples, 65, passed away of COVID-19 on Sept. 2, according to their joint obituary
By Gabrielle Chung via People
A family in North Carolina is weathering two tragedies after a husband and wife died just minutes apart from each other following a month-long battle with the novel coronavirus.
Johnny Lee Peoples, 67, and his wife Cathy Darlene Peoples, 65, died of COVID-19 on Sept. 2 at Novant Health Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, according to their joint obituary.
The couple had been struggling with coronavirus for 30 days when they were placed in a room together for a final goodbye, their surviving son Shane Peoples said.
“Everything just went south, everything just got worse,” he told WBTV. “The next day [medical staff] put them in the same room, same ICU room, they put their hands together, the nurses gathered around and they passed within four minutes of each other.”
“They were married 48 years, been together 50, they walked hand in hand for those 50 years,” Shane said of his parents.
Both natives of North Carolina, Johnny was a sergeant in the U.S. Army and worked for the NC Department of Corrections and Cathy worked as teacher assistant at Salisbury Academy and a lab technician at LabCorp, according to an online tribute.
In their obituary, Johnny was described by his relatives as a man who “loved coaching youth sports, playing music and building the family tree,” while Cathy’s interests included crafting, listening to music and playing cards.
Their loved ones said in the tribute that the pair both enjoyed fishing and “spending quality time with family and friends.” Read more from People.
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