Couple Who Were Married for 73 Years Die Just Hours Apart
An elderly couple who had been married for 73 years died in the same room together within the space of a few hours.
Wanda Wold was 96 years old when she passed away at the Concord Care Center in Garner, Iowa, after suffering from Alzheimer's for several years.
Just a few hours later, her 94-year-old husband James "Jim" Wold also died in the same room he shared with his longtime partner at the nursing home.
Candy Engstler, one of the Wolds' three children, told KCCI how she got a call around 4 a.m. from the nursing home and was informed that her mother had died and went to visit her father, along with one of her sisters.
"He folded his hands with both of us on either side of his bed, and he said, 'Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for taking her, and would you please take me now too?''" Engstler said.
"About 7 o'clock, I got the call that he had also passed," Engstler said.
Despite losing both her parents on the same day, Engstler said she is comforted by the fact they passed so soon apart.
"They were lucky and fortunate that he allowed them both to go the same day," she said. "My dad wouldn't have wanted to be here without her, so it was a blessing."
According to an online obituary, the pair married at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Santiago, Minnesota, on May 30, 1948.
The couple lived in Santiago and Mount Vernon, Illinois and moved to Glencoe, Minnesota, in 1959.
In 1966, they moved to Garner, where they lived for the rest of their lives.
Wanda Wold worked as a registered nurse at Concord Care Center and for Hancock County Public Health before she retired.
She was born March 24, 1925 in Merrill, Iowa. She graduated Merrill High School in 1943 before attending the St. Luke's School of Nursing in Sioux City.
Her hobbies included gardening, golfing, and going to casinos. She was a member of a church bowling team in Garner, as well as the Garner Women's Golf Association.
Jim Wold was born June 1, 1927, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. He joined the U.S. Navy during the Second World War when he was just 17 after lying about his age.
Following an honorable discharge, he returned home and worked for his father at a hardware store before taking up a job in sales for DeLaval Milking Equipment when the couple moved to Mount Vernon.
After they moved to Garner, he began working for AAL Insurance in 1972, where he continued until his retirement.
"I just feel it was definitely their time, and the Lord called them and he called them in a beautiful way," Engstler said. "And so, I just hang on to that."
Funeral services for the pair will be held at 10:30 a.m., on Monday, July 26 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Garner.
