‘They lived and died together’: Rock Hill couple, married 57 years, dies hours apart

The big body was worn, but Newell Edwards’ heart had one last flutter left for the only girl of his whole life.

The feeling was no different from the time six decades ago outside Shelby, N.C. when Newell first Saw Shirley Spurling walk down the stairs in that pink dress.

Newell vowed to love her forever.

He did.

He loved her through 57 years of marriage, until Shirley died Saturday morning around 2:30 a.m. in hospice care.

Shirley , 75, who had dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, was in a nursing center in Lexington, near the South Carolina capital of Columbia. That center was around 70 miles from where Newell lay in his own hospice bed at his Rock Hill home. He came home after two weeks in the hospital.

But miles didn’t matter to love, family say. Love traveled those miles.

Two hours later, after calling out “no, no, no,” several times in his sleep, Newell Edwards died at age 77.

“Daddy always wanted them to go to heaven together - but he wanted to go first,” said Tracy Edwards, one of the two Edwards sons. “She was gone, but he was asleep. But he had to know. He was talking in his sleep. They lived and died together.”

Tracy Edwards and his brother, Troy, had cried about their mother’s death Saturday before dawn. They sat at the kitchen table of their parents’ apartment, waiting for their father to wake up.

Their father was a retired electrician. A burly man with forearms the size of Virginia hams who sang gospel and even recorded some songs. Their mother was a bookkeeper. They first moved to Charlotte, then Rock Hill in the 1980s. Their joy in life was simple - each other. Now they had to tell their father that his wife had passed.

“We were deciding who was going to tell Dad that the woman he loved all his life was gone,” Troy Edwards said. “We didn’t have to tell him. He knew. His heart knew. The love he had for my mother radiated from him to her. And from her to him. You could feel it, like heat. He knew it was time to go be with her forever in heaven.”

The last of 57-plus years of marriage for Newell and Shirley Edwards finished with Newell becoming caretaker for his wife. He doted on her, vowed never to let her out of his sight. He cooked for her, took care of her, brought her presents of flowers and more.

Only his own illness from heart problems broke that promise.

“Before Dad died, he would say he just wanted to hold Momma one more time,” Tract Edwards said. “He was so gentle with her in life. He loved her. And she loved him.”

There will not be a funeral service, although the couple were deeply religious and devout Christians. The sons said that his parents didn’t want a funeral or even a memorial service.

“They just wanted to love each other and love the Lord,” Tracy Edwards said.

When the Edwards sons called Parker Funeral Home in Rock Hill to pick up their father’s body, they mentioned that their mother had died, too. Parker’s workers brought Shirley Edwards’ body to the Rock Hill apartment the couple shared, so that both together could make a last trip to the funeral home in the company of each other.

In life. And in death.

Side-by-side.

“They took that last ride in the same van,” Troy Edwards said. “Together.”

This story was originally published January 1, 2019 at 9:58 AM.