Married 62 Years, A Loving Couple Die Just One Day Apart
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philip Baselice was a member of the Greatest Generation, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Therese was the love of his life.
That love, beginning in those wartime days blossomed for 62 years, through six children and six grandchildren. Phil's only rival for affection: the Phillies, his wife an ardent fan of the games they always watched together.
"He treated her like an angel," daughter Cathy Emanuel said."He was totally devoted."
"Its almost like they were one person," she explained,"everything they thought and felt was like one person."
When dementia struck, Therese, her family says, still reached out through the growing darkness for the man she loved.
"She would just reach out her hand and hold it, knowing somehow he would grab it," daughter Peg Baselice said.
And Phil, now fighting terminal cancer, was always there.
"She knew his touch," she related."She knew he was there."
When Phil passed away March 15, Peg told her mom.
"I told her 'mom, dad's passed away, hes waiting for you.'"
And just one day after learning her love was gone, Therese departed life.
"We always knew, whichever died first, the other would be right behind the next day," Cathy explained.
Peg adding, "They wouldn't ever have been able to live without each other."
And so after sharing a lifetime, Phil and Therese are side-by-side once again. with their obituaries, and at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery where they were laid to rest this morning.
Together...Inseparable. Makes you believe the folks who wrote that song were right, the song entitled, "Love Never Dies."