Together in life and death - Manchester seniors die weeks apart after 67 years of marriage
George and Jenny Green have been married for the past 67 years, and have virtually been inseparable. Their love was undying and their hearts seemingly beat as one.
However, all that came to a tragic end after George, 89, and Jenny, 85, died within two weeks of each other. Jenny died on May 20 and George died on June 3.
They will be buried in one grave in their family plot at Top Coffee Grove, Manchester, this Sunday. "We a guh bury them one time; the union nah break, not even in the tomb," their son, 65-year old son, Winston Green told THE STAR.
The couple shared 12 children, of whom Winston is the eldest for George, and the third child for Jenny. "Their relationship was wonderful from what I can remember growing up. Dem live good and them grow we real good. When night come we couldn't leave our home go nowhere. At that time we feel like dem did a disadvantage we, but now when me look back, it was a real good thing, it was the right way," Winston recounted.
The couple toiled to create a life for their children through farming. "They plant cabbage, tomato and yam and sell it in Coronation Market. Both a them go market like husband and wife go sell them food. A hard-working people them. All my mother, she was a real hard worker. All when she pregnant she still a farm," Winston said.
Mario Mitchell, councillor for the Bellfield Division in which Top Coffee Grove falls, said the Greens were "basically mother and father of the community". He said that in addition to their children, the couple took care of others, and were serious about community development.
George and Jenny were active until a few years ago when Jenny was diagnoised with Alzheimer's's disease. George, too, got ill in January, and the prognosis, according to Winston, was not good.
"Me father sick, have cancer for a while, and doctor said him don't have a long time to live, so he was in the hospital for about a month and my mother was home. But nobody never tell her that he was sick, so is like she notice that she not seeing him around and she just stress out and stop eat. She just take it to heart and die," Winston said.
It was a shock
He said that his father died after he learnt of his wife's passing.
"After me mother die, them tell me father about it a week later and him, too, start to consider about her and stop eat, too; so later on he died. Two weeks after me mada die, me father die. Trust me, it was a shock for everybody. It really tough, trust me. It pains when your parents die, and die separately, it nuh pressuring. But two same time, it nuh easy," Winston said.
Following gravedigging on Tuesday, family members are now preparing to say their last goodbye this Sunday. Winston said that it is a most difficult time for his family, even as he seeks to find comfort in the fact that his parents were married for 67 years "and dem die together, basically".
"The Bible say two married person is a union and a union cannot break, so me just look on it say God is saying him nah make one stay back to suffer the loss of the other one ," he reasoned.