Warning: If you couldn't make it through The Notebook without bawling, you should grab your tissues. Jack and June Hopper, a couple in eastern Tennessee, were married for 70 years before dying just hours apart from each other earlier this week. That's sad in and of itself, sure, but it's their full love story that really warms the heart. Though their end was tragic, their beginning was absolutely adorable.
The Hoppers first met in high school, when June was cleaning chalk board in a classroom. "She turned to throw a chalk board eraser at the other kid, but missed. It flew out the window and hit daddy. That's how they met," Jacque Hopper, their daughter, told local news station WATE.
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It must have been love at first sight that never faded — during their seven-decade-long marriage, they had four children, eight grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren.
"Not many people make it to that nowadays. It was just something super fantastic," their daughter added of their long union. The twosome, known by their families as "Mimmie" and "Pippie," certainly shared an interest in travel; pictures from their joint vacations filled up fifty albums.
But that wasn't the real secret to their success. One of their grandchildren, Mayme Taylor, found out by simply asking. "How do you do it? How do you stay married and the answer she gave me was simple. She said you just stay married," said Taylor.
And after all those years, less than one day separated their deaths. Jack died on Tuesday of cancer at 88, and 86-year-old June followed just 14 hours later after a battle with dementia.
"Daddy passed on Tuesday morning and then that night about 12:30, he came back for his sweetheart," Hopper told WATE.