On April 7, 2015, Lillian passed away at a Lexington, KY nursing home minutes after her husband of 73 years, William "Wild Bill" Wilson, died at Thomson-Hood Veterans Center.
He was 93. She was 89. Both were Alzheimer's patients.
Lillian and Bill were high-school sweethearts who ran off and married in 1941. Bill Wilson had a scholarship to attend Western Kentucky University, but when World War II began he enlisted in the Army. When he returned home in 1945, he and Lillian went through a slew of financial ups and downs, relocations, and minor tragedies. Bill, always determined on running his own business, opened a realty business with just $800. It grew into a million-dollar firm. The couple would also buy houses at foreclosure sales, then rehab them for resale. He would handle the carpentry, she the decor.
Lillian would always say, "I'm not going till Bill goes." This past week, Bill and Lillian's son Doug received a call that his father had died. "Five minutes later, at 3:57 a.m., I got a call from Richmond Place: 'Doug, I'm sorry to tell you, your mother has passed,' " Doug told Kentucky.com.
When Doug called Thomson-Hood to tell them that his mother had died, "the nurse said, 'Oh, my God, that's like The Notebook,' " in which a couple dealing with Alzheimer's die together in their sleep.
Doug's family is holding a joint "celebration of life" service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Association.
Among the possessions Bill kept was a photo collage of him and his wife. "It says on it, 'Lill & Bill together forever,' " Doug said. "It came true."
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