After 63 years of marriage, a couple known on the internet as 'The Real Life Notebook' has passed away in adjacent beds just hours after each other. 

The couple, Don and Maxine Simpson from Bakersfield in California, were said to have fallen in love instantly after meeting in a bowling alley in the 1940s. 

A few weeks ago, Don suffered an injury and broke his hip. During his time in hospital his health quickly deteriorated and the cancer his wife Maxine had been battling began to progress also.

The couple's family knew that all they wanted was to be together and so arranged for Don and Maxine to move into the family's spare room so they could spent their last moments together. 

"They left this world together. It’s absolutely beautiful, and the story is beautiful. All Don wanted was to be with his beautiful wife. He adored my grandmother, loved her to the end of the Earth," granddaughter Melissa Sloan told local news station KERO.

Melissa spoke of the heartwarming and heartbreaking moment when her grandparents knew they were reunited and knew their time together was coming to an end.

“Gram woke up and saw him, and held hands and they knew that they were next to each other."

"[After she passsed away] I walked them out with her body, walked back in to check on grandpa and he quit breathing as soon as her body left the room. He left with her, and they passed four hours apart from each other.”