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Loving couple 'died together'

Dorothy and Glen Baker, their hands clasped, died within hours of each other.

By PATRICK MALONEY, FREE PRESS REPORTER

When Dorothy Baker died in St. Thomas hospital last week, her husband Glen let go of her hand and followed a familiar pattern that wove through their life together.

Anywhere she went, he followed.

It started the night they met in 1946 at a legendary Port Stanley dance hall, Glen persistently chasing Dorothy down until she agreed to dance.

She booked trips around the globe throughout their marriage, and he gladly went, too.

When he retired, he followed his beloved around the house, reluctantly going out without her.

So it was fitting, their daughter says, that when Dorothy -- who'd long battled a lung affliction -- died in the hospital's palliative unit last Friday, her ill husband lying beside her also died just two hours later.

"As soon as their hands were unclasped, they (the nurses) could start to see my dad fail," Lynn Baker said yesterday.

"They were so devoted, and they loved each other so much, that death didn't part them."

Or, as a doctor overseeing their care said: "It's much more explained by his desire to be with her than by anything I can explain to you medically."

After sparking a romance at the Stork Club, the couple married on June 14, 1947.

They settled in St. Thomas, his home town, to raise Lynn, their only child. Dorothy worked a variety of office jobs while Glen spent about 30 years selling furniture at Eaton's in downtown London.

They lived in the same Churchill Crescent home for 53 years, only moving out in October.

They were, as their daughter puts it, "a kind, little gentle couple who led this simple life in St. Thomas."

Dorothy, 88, was admitted to the palliative unit Nov. 5. Glen, 82, was in and out of hospital two days later but re-admitted permanently with various ailments Nov. 14.

Last Friday, with an unconscious Dorothy's health faltering badly, and Glen also weakening, hospital staff wheeled him into her room and pushed their beds together.

He held her hand for hours before slipping out of consciousness himself.

Dorothy died at her husband's side at 7 p.m. Their hands were unclasped about two hours later as her body was taken away.

That's when Glen's condition unexpectedly worsened.

Within 30 minutes, he, too, died peacefully.

For the hospital staff -- whose compassion was lauded by the family -- it was an overwhelming experience.

"It touched everyone," said Dr. Sharon Baker, who is not related. "The love that they shared . . . it's why we come to work every day."

Fittingly, Glen and Dorothy will be buried together side by side in St. Thomas tomorrow, a love story without end.

"Everybody says he just wanted to be with Dorothy, no matter what," Lynn Baker said. "They had a true, pure love for each other."

"How can you be sad when you know that they're together forever?"

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2...75924-sun.html