Husband, 90, Dies Hours Later After Wife, 81, Loses Battle to CCP Virus

(Illustration - Mike Fouque/Shutterstock)

A British couple married for 63 years were finally separated by death. The elderly pair was hospitalized for COVID-19 after contracting the CCP virus; the husband refused further oxygen treatment after learning his wife was no more.

On Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, Bill Dartnall, 90, and his wife, Mary Dartnall, 81, passed away hours from each other, losing their battle to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

The Dartnalls, who lived in Millbrook, a suburb of Southampton, England, tested positive for the CCP virus after being hospitalized for other health problems. When Bill found out that Mary had passed away, he refused further oxygen treatment and died five hours later.

“Dad probably wouldn’t have wanted to live without Mom,” Rosemary said, according to The Daily Mail. “They were very much a pair and it’s hard to imagine either of them without the other.”

Mary was the first to fall ill and be hospitalized at the end of March; Bill had a stroke not long after and was too admitted at the Southampton General Hospital.

“When [dad] was told that mom had passed away he tried to pull the mask off his face and made it clear he didn’t want any more oxygen,” Rosemary said.

Rosemary added that for whatever reason he refused the mask, “he didn’t want to carry on.” “He continued to be cared for and passed away peacefully in his sleep a few hours later,” she said.

Thus ended a loyal marriage that had stood the test of time.

The couple were married in 1956 and raised two daughters, Rosemary and Ann. Rosemary told BBC that her parents “were a team.”

“Life wasn’t always a bed of roses,” Rosemary said, “but they got through it together and they left us together.”

After working as a merchant marine on banana boats from South Africa, Bill became one of the most well known chimney sweeps of Southampton. Calling her father a “practical genius,” daughter Ann said her dad was the go-to chimney sweep in the area.

“[I]f you had a chimney that no-one else could sweep, he could do it,” Ann said.

Meanwhile, Mary, in addition to raising their daughters, she also become very involved in beekeeping. The British Beekeepers Association paid tribute to her on their website, noting: “Mary was a Past President of BBKA from 1996 –97 and an Honorary Member of the BBKA. During her presidency she campaigned for farmers to limit spraying of chemicals to protect bees.”

Their daughters remember them as “enterprising” people who never gave up.

“They were quite special people,” Rosemary told BBC. “They worked extremely hard throughout their lives and were blessed with a can-do attitude to life.”

The hardest part for the daughters was not being able to be with their parents at the end of their lives. Given their parents’ COVID-positive status, Rosemary and Ann had to keep track of their progress from a distance.

“It’s horrible enough to lose your parents, but being separated and not being able to be with them and hold their hands at the end of their lives has been very hard,” Rosemary said.

Rosemary and Ann are looking forward to the chance to pay their respects to their parents once restrictions on gathering for funerals have lifted.