TOGETHER FOR 50 YEARS, DEVOTED COUPLE DIED JUST HOURS APART
AFTER more than half a century of devotion to one another, little could separate Tom and Norine Orr – until the coronavirus pandemic.
Heartbroken they could no longer be together following Mrs Orr’s sudden admission to hospital for tests, her 77-year-old husband repeatedly set out to visit, only to be reminded by his family that Covid restrictions prevented him.
Unable to even talk to her on the phone because of speech difficulties he experienced due to Parkinson’s disease, the devastated retired engineer had to wait to hear how she was faring when his sister received updates from nursing staff.
The loving couple, from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, had only been apart for two days when Mr Orr collapsed and died alone at home from a heart attack – after hearing the news that his 78-year-old wife was about to pass away.
She died just a few hours later, a nurse holding her hand for company, unaware that her beloved husband was already dead.
Yesterday, Mr Orr’s grieving sister, Maureen Kimm, said: ‘Covid is so unfair. Tom regularly said how much he missed her and couldn’t believe she was in hospital and he was left alone.
‘He was pining for her. He just kept saying he simply couldn’t live by himself.’
The couple, who had no children, would have celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary on the day they were laid to rest together in a joint funeral service.
Mrs Kimm added: ‘They did everything together and one wouldn’t have wanted to live without the other. One of the things that has helped us is that they did go together and are now together.’
The Orrs, who both grew up in Kilmarnock but attended different schools, first met in their early 20s when Mr Orr was working as an engineer at local company, Glenfield and Kennedy, and Mrs Orr was a copy designer at the town’s BMK carpet factory.
They became a familiar sight, the sports-mad Mr Orr, who played rugby, football and cricket, with his glamorous, immaculately dressed companion who is remembered by many for her perfect hair and make-up.
The pair, who married on August 25, 1967, cherished nothing more than each other’s company, cruising around the Mediterranean together on holidays whenever the opportunity arose. They had been on so many trips over the years they had their favourite ship and cabin, as well as getting to know the crew.
Latterly, they both suffered from mobility issues and Mr Orr had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, limiting their excursions to trips to the garden centre for their lunch or for coffee.
Mrs Kimm said: ‘That’s literally all they were fit for lately, and they just sort of helped one another. Norine had to shield during lockdown, so she couldn’t really nurse him with his Parkinson’s because of her own health.’
On August 12, however, Mrs Orr was suddenly admitted to the town’s Crosshouse Hospital after tests showed she had high calcium levels.
As Mrs Orr was being kept in the admissions ward while further tests were carried out, she was unable to have a designated visitor and her husband began to fret that their separation could become permanent.
Mrs Kimm added: ‘It’s just such a shame that Tom couldn’t visit Norine. He’d be getting ready to go to hospital and we’d have to tell him, “She’s still in the ward, you can’t go”.’
After Mrs Orr suddenly took a turn for the worse, hospital staff called Mrs Kimm around 2.30am on August 14 to say she should collect Mr Orr and bring him to the hospital as quickly as possible as his wife’s condition had begun to deteriorate.
After making her way to the couple’s home with her husband, John, Mrs Kimm found her brother lying behind the front door.
The couple hastily called for an ambulance and paramedics arrived within minutes, joined by a fastresponse emergency doctor.
Despite the efforts of the emergency services, Mr Orr died. Mrs Kimm said: ‘They worked on him solidly for an hour but nothing could be done. We’d already called the hospital to say we were unable to visit Norine and they said she had improved.’
But after dealing with police and an undertaker, the couple returned home ‘in a blur’ around 7.30am – only to face further heartbreak.
Mrs Kimm added: ‘We were only back five minutes when the hospital phoned to say Norine had got worse and they didn’t think she’d last half an hour.
‘Ten minutes later, they called again to say she’d passed. It was like a double blow and just sort of surreal. We weren’t expecting this to happen to each of them.’
Only 12 people could attend the couple’s funeral service, held under strict Covid restrictions at Holmsford Bridge crematorium in Dreghorn, Ayrshire.
Mr Kimm said: ‘We don’t know what we would have done if one had gone before the other. You never saw one without the other.
‘They were inseparable. The way we look at it is there’s a lot of couples who would love to go that way, both together. ’
‘Norine had to shield. She couldn’t nurse Tom’ ‘He pined for her, he couldn’t live by himself’