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Couple buried in double coffin 'so they can hold hands'
Victor and Elsie Bower on their wedding day in 1954.
A more recent photo of Victor and Elsie Bower.
Victor and Elsie Bower on their wedding day in 1954.
Victor and Elsie Bower were laid to rest side by side in a double coffin.
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A couple who were together sixty-five years have become the first couple to be buried in a 'double coffin' - so they can hold hands.
The couple's daughter Sharon Bower(54), said that the couple were inseparable, and "used to cry a lot if they ever had to spend time apart".
Victor and Elsie Bower had been married since 1954. They were childhood sweethearts. They died nine days apart - family say Victor(82) died first, of cancer, and Elsie(80) followed nine days later, dying "of a broken heart".
The couple were laid to rest in a double coffin so they could continue to "hold hands".
Michael Fogg, the funeral director, facilitated the families wishes.
"To me it didn’t seem right to have separate coffins when all Elsie wanted to be was by the side of Victor".
Victor and Elsie Bower were laid to rest side by side in a double coffin.
A more recent photo of Victor and Elsie Bower.
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“I thought, ‘What can I do … to support a couple that even death couldn’t keep apart?’”
It is the first time a double coffin has been used in South Yorkshire.
The couple are survived by two children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
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