Tennessee high school sweethearts spent last moments holding hands after 69 years of marriage

Virginia and Tommy Stevens spent one day shy of 69 years together. The Tennessee couple's last days before that were spent in the hospital, holding hands.

Tommy Stevens died on Sept. 8 at the age of 91 — just before what would have been the couple's 69th anniversary, per his obituary. Nine days later Virginia, also 91, died. Even though the last time they were together was at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, their days were still filled with smiles and family.

The couple's daughter Karen Kreager told Vanderbilt University Medical Center's VUMC Voice that her parents “both lit up” when they saw each other after both Tommy and Virginia ended up in the hospital. The hospital staff played a role in making sure the two were able to spend as much time together before Tommy's death.

“He was awake when she came in,” Kreager to VUMC Voice. “His eyes were open. He wasn’t communicating a lot — just in small whispers. But he knew that she was there and that she was going to be right beside him. They haven’t stopped holding hands the whole time. She won’t let go of him.”

A love story born and nurtured in Tennessee

Obituaries condense a person's life story to the highlights, and Virginia and Tommy's love story had quite a few spread across Tennessee.

Doyle Thomas “Tommy“ Stevens Jr. was born on Christmas Day in 1931 in Kingsport. Just a few short months later in March and 71 miles south of Kingsport, Virginia McKarem was born in Jefferson City. It wouldn't be long before the two would meet.

While the two were born miles apart, their paths would cross when Virginia's family moved to Kingsport.

The two went to Dobyns-Bennett High School where they met and became childhood sweethearts, according to both of the obituaries. From then on, Tommy and Virginia were together. After high school, they both attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville before getting married in 1954

Like many at that time, Tommy joined the U.S. Army where he and Virginia would live in multiple different locations across the eastern United States. But Tennessee was always home.

After serving in the Army, the couple settled in Memphis where they had and raised a son and daughter, Greg and Karen, according to Tommy's obituary.

During their time in Memphis, they founded and built Distribution and Transportation Services, Inc. (DTS) into a large independent transportation and logistics family of companies throughout the southeastern U.S.

Retirement in Franklin, surrounded by family

The children grew up, started their own lives and soon enough grandkids were on the way. Tommy and Virginia decided that one more move was in order.

After 50 years of business with DTS the couple decided to retire and moved to Franklin, just outside of Nashville, to be active in their grandkids' lives, Virginia's obituary read. Their later years were spent going to school activities and sporting events with the grandchildren, beach vacations with the family and just being with one another until Tommy's health began declining.

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and soon was moved to Brighton Gardens in Brentwood. Virginia was by his side as always.

Together until the very end

Tommy began having issues with breathing while at the memory care unit at the Brentwood assisted living facility and was brought to Vanderbilt where he was soon moved to the Medical Center’s Palliative Care Unit when treatment for his condition stopped being effective.

Unfortunately, Virginia also made an appearance in the hospital after falling the morning Tommy was taken in.

“Really, we think that you just needed to check on Dad, and that was your ride,” teased Kreager during the VUMC interview.

Virginia had six broken ribs, a spinal fracture and a hip injury which earned her admission to VUMC’s Trauma ICU. According to VUMC, the family was caught playing an awful game of tag as they tried to visit both Tommy and Virginia in the different units. The staff soon stepped in to help reunite the couple so the whole family could be together.

“It reminds me of why we do this work,” said Mohana Karlekar, MD, medical director of VUMC’s adult Palliative Care Program. “We take care of people — husbands, wives, mothers, fathers — not patients. We brought this family together during one of their most difficult times with little effort on our part.  It involved a call, seeing an extra patient that day and some conversations.

“From the time we brought Mrs. Stevens over, she held her husband’s hand and fussed in a very loving way with him,” Karlekar said. “She was able to tell me Monday that she was at peace with what was going on, and she wanted to be there until the end.”

The couple's last days together were just that. Together.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee couple married for 69 years spend last days together, holding hands