A devoted English couple died just 10 minutes apart after a 65-year romance that started in their teen years.



In their final days, Harry and Mavis Stevenson had been living in St. Werburgh's House Care Home in Derby because she had fallen ill and they could not stand being apart.



The Stevensons' family was not surprised when Mavis passed away on Nov. 3 at 89 but was shocked when her 88-year-old husband — who was in good health — shed a few tears and died by her side just minutes later, according to local media.



“Their love lasted and they were devoted to each other. I can imagine them being together now, after their death, side by side,” the couple’s nephew Stephen Cresswell, 63, told the Derby Telegraph.



Harry and Mavis met at the Asterdale social club before Harry joined the Royal Marines in 1943.



He stormed the beach at Normandy on D-Day to help liberate continental Europe from Hitler’s clutches and was shot in the hand while battling the Japanese in the Pacific theater, the local paper said.



But perhaps the most significant pain came from being apart from Mavis, who was waiting for him back in the United Kingdom.

























Cresswell thinks his uncle’s service in World War II made their bond much deeper.



“Their romance and their love kept them together during those years. When there is absence, then the heart grows stronger,” Cresswell said.



Harry and Mavis got married after he returned home, and they tried to minimize their time apart as much as possible — even after she got sick later in life.









Cresswell said the nurses told Harry that she had died, then they walked out of the room, only to find him dead minutes later, the Daily Telegraph reported.

They were, he said, "soulmates."