They were married for 78 years. They died within hours of each other at a Mass. nursing home.
“Their love story began in the summer of 1942 and continued until last Friday.”
Within hours of each other, a husband and wife of 78 years passed away Friday in their Massachusetts nursing home.
Related Links
-
Local
Here’s how to cope with and talk about death during COVID-19, according to experts
-
Funerals during COVID-19
‘They wanted to do it as quickly as possible’: Families face emotional challenges of having a funeral during COVID-19
-
Live updates
Live updates: The latest news on the coronavirus outbreak in New England
The family of David and Muriel Cohen wrote that the couple was “treated with Love, dignity, and respect, which they greatly deserved” in their final days at the Jewish Nursing Home of Western Massachusetts.
Muriel, 97, had recently tested positive for coronavirus, but her 102-year-old husband had not, the family told MassLive. The family decided against having them isolated in separate rooms at the facility where they had lived over the last year-and-a-half.
Their daughter, Frances Grosnick, told MassLive her parents were ill with other conditions.
“I said, ‘My parents cannot be separated, and my dad and mother have to stay together,’ so that was exactly what we did,” she told WCVB.
Her parents met when Muriel was a nursing school student in Brooklyn and they were always together, except when David was serving as a radio operator during World War II, Grosnick said.
“Their love story began in the summer of 1942 and continued until last Friday,” she told MassLive.
“Their love story began in the summer of 1942 and continued until last Friday,” their daughter, Frances Grosnick said.https://t.co/5FkT1EXEX0
— masslivenews (@masslivenews) April 14, 2020
The 102-year-old was among those who liberated the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Gotha, Germany.
“He spent the rest of his life speaking about his liberating experiences and teaching area school children about the Holocaust and to ‘never hate,’” Cohen’s family wrote in his obituary. “During David’s time in the military, during the liberation, [he] took an abundance of photographs, some of which can be seen in the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.”
He worked as a history teacher in South Jamaica, New York, for many years, and after retirement, he and Muriel moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, to be near their children and grandchildren. They leave behind two children, six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
The family is planning a private burial due to COVID-19, but a celebration of “the life and love of David and Muriel” will be held at a later date.
“My parents are together and my parents are at peace,” Grosnick told WCVB. “I was very fortunate to have my parents for a very long time. I was fortunate and I was blessed, and I’m going to remember that.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com