<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><div>Courtesy of today's (February 27, 2015) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1.2; font-size: 28px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);">Married couple of 67 years die hand-in-hand</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">FRESNO, Calif. – After spending 67 years together as devoted husband and wife, there was no question how Floyd and Violet Hartwig would end their lives – together. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sensing the couple was close to death, their children pushed their two hospice beds together and gently placed their father’s hand in the mother’s palm. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Floyd, 90, died first. Violet, 89, followed five hours later. They died Feb. 11 at home, just as they had wished, the family said. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“They wanted to go together,” their daughter, Donna Scharton, said Thursday. “It was meant to be that way.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The two knew each other as children, growing up in the Central California farming community of Easton. Romance sparked at a local dance hall one night when Floyd, a decorated Navy sailor, was home on shore leave. They were married Aug. 16, 1947, and while away Floyd showered Violet with affection through love letters the family cherishes. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Around the holidays, the family noticed that Violet’s dementia had worsened, and in late January a doctor said Floyd’s failing kidneys gave him two weeks to live. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cynthia Letson said that after her grandfather passed, they told her grandmother that she could go, too – that Floyd was waiting for her.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Floyd and Violet Hartwig pose together in Easton, Calif., in March.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><img src="cid:0E783E47-5723-497F-9DA0-93BCE70B4DC9" alt="image1.jpeg" id="0E783E47-5723-497F-9DA0-93BCE70B4DC9"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Floyd_Violet_Hartwig.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Floyd_Violet_Hartwig.jpg</a></p></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>Rest well, Mr. and Mrs. Hartwig. <br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>