A real-life 'The Notebook' story: Ohio couple dies 15 hours apart after 70-year marriage

Much like the classic Nicholas Sparks novel, The Notebook, in which (spoiler!) the main characters die holding hands, an Ohio couple died just 15 hours apart earlier this week, reports The Associated Press.

"We knew when one went, the other was going to go," Linda Cody, one of the couple's daughters, said.

Helen and Kenneth Felumlee met several years before they eloped in Newport, Ky., on February 20, 1944. Kenneth, who was two days shy of his 21st birthday, couldn't yet legally marry in the couple's home state of Ohio, so they headed across the Ohio River.

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Helen Felumlee died at 92 on April 12, and Kenneth, 91, died the next morning in Nashport, Ohio.

"He was ready," Cody said. "He just didn't want to leave her here by herself."

The couple's eight children said the two remained inseparable over their 70-year marriage, holding hands each morning at breakfast and traveling extensively across the United States after Kenneth retired — always by bus.

"He didn't want to fly anywhere," Jim Felumlee, one of the couple's sons, said. "Because you couldn't see anything as you were going."

The couple celebrated their 70th marriage anniversary in February. --Sarah Eberspacher