According to the BBC for the first time in British history, a married couple was cremated together in the same casket after passing away within hours of each other at the same hospital.

Married for 40 years, Kevin and Christine Shearson were about to celebrate their ruby anniversary when Christine fell ill with a chest infection while keeping vigil at the bedside of her husband, who had been hospitalized due to complications with multiple sclerosis. The couple was completely devoted to one another in life, nearly inseparable during their four decades together, and their three children take comfort in the fact that they passed together.

“The only comfort we have is that they went together,” said Kelly, 38, one of the Shearson’s three children. “They wouldn’t have been able to suffer each other’s funerals. They absolutely lived for each other and loved each other so much.”

The couple’s cremation represents the first time two individuals in Britain have been cremated in the same retort (cremation chamber) who weren’t twins or mother and child. The children are confident that a combined cremation is what they’re parents wanted.

“It is so important to us that they’re cremated together,” says Kelly. “They were never without each other — they will be together now.”

Tim Morris, from the Institute of Cemetery and Cremation Management, confirmed that the cremation was unusual, but went on to say: “I haven’t heard of this happening before, but this is what the family wants and there is nothing in the law to say they can’t do it.”

“It gives them some comfort.”

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