CHICAGO — David and Sondra Zorn spent nearly every minute together during the 64 years they were married.
They’d spend days together in the home they shared with their children, listening to gospel music or watching “Jeopardy.”
Ever since they met at a South Side church’s youth group, then married at ages 18 and 24, the couple had been inseparable. They had lived in the same home in Lombard, Illinois, since 1962.
And so their children always thought that when they passed away, they would do that together, too.
But never did anyone imagine it would be so very close.
The Zorns died within days of each other after sharing a room at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Illinois, following hospitalizations with COVID-19. The staff, and their family, worked to place them in the same room, where their hands could rest together and their children could know they felt the comfort of being near.
“We always said they would probably pass away together, because they were so close, but we didn’t know this close,” said Deanna Wilkins, their daughter.
Wilkins described her parents as people who loved God and loved their family, spending time as a young family with growing children going on vacations and welcoming foster children. They loved to collect Coca Cola memorabilia, even going to conventions for collectors. Later in life, with 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, they spent summer weekends at a lake house in Michigan, soaking up the water. Thanksgivings were spent around fire pits there.
David Zorn sold supplies for laundry and dry cleaning, and Sondra Zorn stayed at home and ran a day care until the kids were older, later working as a bookkeeper. Throughout the years, the family remained close.
“Even in the ups and downs, you just stick together,” Wilkins said.
Even in their 80s, they were able to live in their Lombard home, where two children also lived with them.
That was until October, when Sondra Zorn had a stroke and was hospitalized. Complications from the stroke kept her in a hospital and later in rehab. But she kept up her will.
“She had a lot of ups and downs,” Wilkins said. “She kept on wanting to fight. We would ask her, and she kept on wanting to fight.”
Meanwhile, David Zorn, who had dementia, was at home without her, asking his children, “Where’s Ma?”
In January, Sondra Zorn was transferred to Good Samaritan after she was diagnosed with COVID-19 and was having trouble breathing.
Throughout recent months, her children were prepared that it might be time.
But what surprised them was suddenly facing their father’s potential death, too.
“We expected my mom, but we didn’t expect my dad,” Wilkins said.
David Zorn was hospitalized in January after testing positive for COVID-19.
When Advocate patient relations specialist Johnny Gillespie realized that they would both be there, he knew they should share a room. Years ago, the hospital had moved away from shared rooms to single rooms. This time, it would be the opposite.
Having talked to Wilkins before, when her mom was hospitalized, he had leaned down to whisper in Sondra Zorn’s ear that he was in constant touch with her daughter, and let her know by touching her hand that someone was there.
And he knew the spouses were not used to being apart. “There were these moments where her dad was asking about her mom because they weren’t together, and that was something that really grips at the heartstrings,” Gillespie said.
He asked supervisors, who approved the idea, and they moved their two beds into a room large enough to comfortably hold two, and pushed the beds close enough so their hands could touch.
For what turned out to be their final day alive together, they laid beside each other.
When Wilkins visited, she could tell being near her father was calming her mother.
“I knew my mom knew,” Wilkins said. “You could see her body relax.”
Wilkins would play gospel music they loved, like the Blackwood Brothers. Her father’s favorite song was “What A Beautiful Day (For The Lord To Come Again).”
She put together two photos of her parents holding hands, a black-and-white photo from their wedding day, the bride’s hand placed on top of her groom’s, showing their new rings. Next to it, from January, a photo with hands covered with hospital tubes and arms in hospital gowns, together.
Sondra Zorn died Jan. 5, at age 83. Days later, her husband died Jan. 9 at age 89.
“Once my mom passed, he just was done,” Wilkins said.
Erin Stafford, an Advocate nurse who has cared for COVID-19 patients including the Zorns, said the moment was one she’ll remember as a time she was able to help during a pandemic in which she often felt helpless during patients’ final moments, at times only able to offer FaceTime calls.
The Zorns’ family did not want to discuss the couple’s vaccination status.
“They were able to be together, and not every husband and wife have that opportunity, especially in this climate and pandemic,” Stafford said. “It’s one of the moments that I will cherish.”
Wilkins said the family takes comfort in knowing the couple had more than half a century together and are now in heaven.
“It was a very, very peaceful time just to be able to see them be together one last time,” Wilkins said. “They’re together now.”
