B.C. couple married nearly 75 years died of COVID-19 fewer than 2 days apart

There's a plate of freshly baked coconut oatmeal cookies made with grandma's favourite recipe, a photo album, and endless memories of Robert (Bob) and Joan Proctor. 

Most of the family simply called them "the folks," but to Ashley Simpson and Sarah Simpson, the Proctors were "pa and grandma."

As the sisters reminisce on a sunny afternoon at Sarah's home in New Westminster, B.C., the constant laughter is clearly a product of their love for their grandparents and their grandparents' love for each other.

"They were the perfect puzzle piece," said Ashley, 36. 

"They balanced each other out and just meshed so well together." 

After 74 years of marriage, Bob, 97, and Joan, 98, died on Easter weekend only 37 hours apart, less than two weeks after they tested positive for COVID-19 at their North Vancouver care centre. 

Before retirement, Bob worked for Canada Post and Joan taught preschool. Together they had four children, nine grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. 

Ashley and Sarah, 32, want to share the couple's story as a way to honour them but, more importantly, to put faces to the casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Wartime sweethearts 

Not long after Bob was born in Scotland, his family moved to Ontario. 

During World War II, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and was stationed in B.C. 

One night, a pal asked Bob to join him for an evening out because his date was bringing her sister. That sister was Joan. 

She and Bob were married on Aug. 15, 1945 and set up house first in Vancouver and soon after in North Vancouver.  

Living with pa and grandma 

When Ashley was 10 and Sarah was six, their parents moved the family to B.C. from Ontario.

The four of them lived with the Proctors for just under a year. 

Pa's bedtime storytelling was "colourful," says Ashley, remembering how he would incorporate sound effects and gestures.

"Probably the way we know the Three Little Pigs is not the way most people know the Three Little Pigs," said Sarah.

She also remembers coming home from dance lessons and pa would practise with her to Spice Girls' music. 

"He'd get up there and jig around," Sarah said. 

Handyman and a homemaker 

Joan managed the household and the finances. She taught the girls crafts and was a great baker and cook. 

Her recipe file is coveted by Sarah, Ashley and their cousins. 

Bob was a handyman who completed the couple's house once the builders put up the frame. 

He also once built a wooden boat and Sarah remembers he liked to paint his house with a broom. 

Partners in everything 

The pair loved to travel. They saw most of B.C., Yukon and Alaska from their camper van. 

And, of course, there was time spent fishing from the boat that Bob built. Joan would do the rowing. 

Well into their 90s, they would spend every February at the same little hotel in Waikiki. 

They danced together, gardened together and regularly walked all over North Vancouver, always hand in hand. 

The Proctors lived in the house that Bob built for 66 years — until Joan fell, broke her hip and life changed. 

Always together 

Bob developed dementia and Joan was too weak to go back home. 

The family knew separating them would be devastating — the time Joan spent in hospital recuperating from her broken hip had already taken a toll. 

Fortunately, they were able to move into the same North Vancouver care centre, into a room for two.

Sarah and Ashley had visits there with Bob and Joan in February, before the COVID-19 lockdown. 

"It was really positive. They were in really good spirits," said Ashley. 

The final weeks 

On April 1, word came that Bob had tested positive for COVID-19. Two days later it was the same news for Joan, although she showed no symptoms. 

But the daily progress emails started to come twice a day. 

"The news got sadder and sadder and tougher to read," said Ashley. 

Bob died just after noon on Good Friday, April 10. Joan died 37 hours later on Easter Sunday. 

Sarah says in the midst of her family's grief "it was just peaceful knowing they were together."

When pandemic restrictions are relaxed the Berkley Care Centre plans to hold a ceremony to dedicate the Proctors' room in their name. 

In May, the family held a small graveside ceremony. They hope to have a bigger celebration of life on Aug. 15, which would have have been the couple's 75th wedding anniversary. 

To hear Ashley and Sarah Simpson remember their grandparents on CBC's The Early Edition, tap here.