A recently widowed woman in England has died, just hours after the death of her husband.
There is a deeply held
cultural belief some individuals "die of a broken heart" after the loss of a partner or spouse, and research indicates that indeed, risk of serious cardiovascular events increases sharply during the bereavement period.
World War II veteran Clifford Hartland was 101 when he died on
The couple's daughter Christine, 67, told a local news source that her father had been a prisoner of war, and that her mother had rejected an initial determination that Clifford had been killed in action.
She recalled:
In 1942, Mum got a letter from the Colonel of the Coast Regiment saying Dad was missing, presumed dead. She had the papers to claim a widow's pension. She absolutely refused to believe it ... She lived without him for four years, but she never believed he was dead.
According to their daughter, Clifford and Marjorie Hartland were inseparable. Christine described speaking to her mother following Clifford's death, adding:
The undertaker said he had never seen anything like it, when he came to collect Mum. Paramedics said she died of a heart attack - literally of a broken heart.
Clifford and Marjorie Hartland shared a funeral on