Couple married 61 years dies within 48 hours of each other

CINCINNATI — The only day Joseph and Laura Presutto spent apart in their 61 years of marriage was Monday, the day between their deaths.

"They have been inseparable for that entire time," Donna Presutto said of her parents.

Laura Presutto died Sunday. Husband Joseph died Tuesday. Both were 86.

"It was definitely a love story," said Brenda Orlando, their nurse at Mercy Franciscan at West Park, the nursing home where the couple died.

The two met during World War II and married in 1947. After serving in the military as a bombardier, he was an accountant for 38 years while she ran the family, becoming a painter and expert seamstress who also was so handy she remodeled their basement on her own.

They had one child and worked to show her love, often by example, with the undying love they showed each other.

"The bond between them was so extraordinarily strong," their daughter Donna Presutto said.

That bond lasted through the rearing of their only child and then retirement. It lasted after they moved into an assisted living facility in 2007, where they shared the equivalent of an apartment with caregivers checking in on them.

"I made the promise then that I would move heaven and Earth to help them stay together," their daughter said.

That bond held as both had their health deteriorate so much that they were moved from assisted living into the nursing home where, again, they shared a room.

In April, Donna Presutto said, her mother's health rapidly declined and ebbed and waned for months.

"We just got the feeling that she was hanging on for some reason," she said.

The reason, her daughter believes, came Saturday night when Joseph Presutto was diagnosed with double pneumonia and doctors told the family he likely wouldn't last long.

Within hours of that diagnosis, his wife died.

"We honestly believe," her daughter said, "it was because she believed he would be right behind her."

It was less than 48 hours. Laura Presutto died at 8 p.m. Sunday. Her husband died at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"If that doesn't tell you the power of love ..." their daughter said, trailing off as her voice cracked with emotion.

"I kept them together. She had one day apart but I'm sure she was telling God, 'You'd better get him up here.' This has been a very spiritual journey."

It was for Orlando also, partly because she knew the husband and wife before they came to West Park.

The licensed practical nurse and her husband lived in the same Delhi Township condo complex as the Presuttos and had a casual relationship with them.

That intensified, though, when the couple moved to West Park — and even more so in their final days.

In those final days, the staff made sure the couple was literally together.