Will and Judy Webb pass away: A Michigan couple married for 56 years die two hours within of each other as their story rekindles the Notebook memories.
A Michigan couple who were married for 56 years have died two hours apart from each other.
Will and Judy Webb, both 77, were battling illnesses and their daughter- with the Melvindale couple having spent the last two months in separate hospitals in the lead-up to them passing away on March 6.
The couple’s deaths has led to the husband and wife being compared to characters in the 2004 movie, The Notebook.
In December, Judy had a procedure that ‘didn’t go well’, daughter MaryBeth said. She almost died due to infection on New Year’s Eve and was transported to Henry Ford Hospital.
‘My dad — seeing her like that — it was too much for him,’ the couple’s daughter told News Herald about the printer-turned-beverage distributor.
‘From that point on, everything that happened to her happened to him in a different place.
‘She spiked a fever, he spiked a fever. She started getting congestion, he got pneumonia. She got a reaction from a medication called metabolic encephalopathy, then he turned around and that’s what he had.’
The feelings of illness were made worse by Judy being apart from her husband who’d she’d been with for decades. The couple missed their anniversary for the first time in 13 years during that period, MaryBeth told WXYZ.
‘To me, they didn’t want to live without each other,’ their daughter said.
‘I know it sounds crazy, but people can die from a broken heart, and I feel like that’s what happened to my dad. All my mom wanted to do — she wasn’t really responding real well — and I asked if she wanted to just do comfort care and go be with dad. She perked up, shot her head right up and said, ‘Yes, where is he?’
The pair were reunited in a hospice and as Will – one of 11 siblings – slipped away, with Judy subtly responded by rubbing his hand.
Hours later Judy – who worked in infectious disease at a hospital – took her last breath.
Judy left behind two brothers named Ronald and Donald.
Will and Judy Webb met when they were 14:
Will and Judy Webb met when they were 14. ‘They were friends, they dated other people, they were engaged to other people,’ said Marybeth.
‘And then they were both single when he went to Army. So she was like, ‘I didn’t have anyone to write, so I started writing your dad.’
The couple are survived by their three daughters Lori Thomas, Ann Warren and Mary Beth, five grandchildren (David, Nichole, Ivy, Rykki and Brycen) and four great-grandchildren (Mackenzie, Regan, Avery and Easton).
Their funeral took place Tuesday morning at Michigan Memorial Funeral Home, and they were later cremated at The Witness Crematory.
The couple’s story has led to well-wishers contacting MaryBeth and telling her how similar her parent’s plight mirrored that of the film starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling.
‘I’ve never seen the movie The Notebook, so whenever anybody made reference to it, I didn’t know what they were talking about it,’ she said. ‘I told one of my friends, ‘I’ve never seen it, I’m going to have to watch it.’ She said, ‘You just lived it.’
‘Hearing from people warms my heart because it is a great love story. But I still lost my parents. I’m happy that they went together and don’t have to suffer losing each other, but it’s still hard.’
A service for the couple happened in early March at the Michigan Memorial Funeral Home in Huron Township.
