The couple's son shared that his “mum and dad were inseparable to the end. It was really fitting that they were able to share a coffin and hold hands one last time.”
When Alan and June King first met at work and fell in love, they were just 15 years old. They remained in love for more than seven decades and died only 21 hours apart from each other. June, who was 87 years old, passed away tragically on June 9 at the Brookfield Nursing Home in Dronfield. At Chesterfield Royal Hospital, where he was receiving cancer treatment, Alan also passed on the following day, around 21 hours later. He was 87 as well, per Yorkshire Post.
At a joint funeral held on December 8 at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium, their son gave them the send-off they would have desired. They were buried side by side in the same casket while holding hands, as they had done for the majority of their lives. Their son, Alan King, expressed his appreciation to Michael Fogg Family Funeral Directors for planning the funeral and suggesting that his parents may be buried together in the same casket, which Alan thought was a nice gesture.
He shared that his “mum and dad were inseparable to the end. It was really fitting that they were able to share a coffin and hold hands one last time because they’d been together all their lives and were so happy together.” The son, extremely emotional at the full lives the couple had led, appreciated his parents' romance, adding, “I’d like to say how much they will be missed and how grateful I am for everything they did for me. After 87 years, for them to die within 21 hours of each other, I couldn’t believe it. The odds must be pretty astronomical.”
The couple first worked together as teens at the printing company Arnold Biggins and Sons, where they eventually met. After Alan finished his three years of national service in Germany, they got married and had one kid. This was in 1959. Since then, the couple had always been together, sharing a beautiful life in a municipal apartment in Dronfield Woodhouse for 63 years.
Alan worked as a projectionist at the Dronfield Picture House and was an avid photographer. He once sold a picture of the sad accident that claimed Donald Campbell's life at Coniston Water in the Lake District while he was attempting to break the water speed record to the Daily Mirror. He competed in darts for Derbyshire as well. June suffered severe mastoiditis as a child that necessitated surgery, and her son claimed that while she was "so funny" and was always the "life and soul of any party," her memory was damaged for the rest of her life.
While June worked a variety of jobs during her working life, including at a cafeteria, an engineering firm, and as a maid, Alan remained in the printing sector. They both cherished the Derbyshire countryside and frequently traveled together to picturesque locations like Chatsworth House. Shillito Woods, one of their favorite locations to travel to, is where the couple had requested that their ashes be strewn.
Alan and June King were just 15 when they met at work and fell in love, and they remained smitten for more than seven decades ❤https://t.co/aRmlTIT5R2
— The Yorkshire Post (@yorkshirepost) December 12, 2022
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Representative Cover Image: Getty Images | John Slater
