Fort Worth couple married 53 years died of COVID-19 while holding each other’s hands
Curtis and Betty Tarpley lay together in a hospital room in Fort Worth and held hands. They shared 53 years of marriage, two children, 159 years of life, and a slew of adventures that brought them from a high school in Illinois to a cozy home in Fort Worth.
On June 18, as their fingers laced together, the Tarpleys took their last breath, their lives ended by an invisible virus that attacked their bodies for nearly two weeks.
Their deaths will become another number recorded to keep track of the toll COVID-19 has taken in the United States and world. They leave behind a son and daughter, an ordinary “old-timey” love and young friends who will forever remember them as a couple who worked hard and cared deeply about others.
Journey to Fort Worth
Curtis, 79, and Betty Tarpley, 80, attended Harlem High School in Rockford, Illinois, in the 1950s and worked at the same ice cream shop. They knew of each other, but they didn’t really know each other and never dated.
Both of them ended up in California in their 20s after Curtis joined the military. They met each other again in San Diego, and when they became a couple, they moved back to Rockford and got married. Then, their first born, Tim, came. Soon after, they moved back to California to make a new life for themselves. Two years later, their daughter, Tricia, was born in San Diego.
“They were just regular people,” Tim said on Tuesday while quarantined in his Fort Worth home.
Curtis and Betty didn’t have a lot of money or college degrees, but they found good work that supported their family and kept them happy.
In San Diego, Curtis was a cab driver who often carted famous people around. He was good with his hands and learned woodworking skills.
“We were this poor family in California, yet we were eating lobsters every night because they worked a deal where he would build a lobster trap and they would split whatever the fisherman caught,” Tim said. “It was crazy.”
Together, the Tarpleys were fearless. Betty knew how to stretch a penny and was the one who organized and ran the family. And then when the children were still young, they moved to a smaller town in the California desert and she got a job at a credit union, where she worked her way up in the office.
When Curtis was laid off, they decided to move to Fort Worth, where Betty’s sister and family lived.
“We got here in the ‘80s,” Tim said.
It took awhile for the couple to find work. But Tim remembers his mom teaching him how to do laundry and clean when he was in middle school because she was working again.
“They both had odd jobs and then my mom retired from two credit unions and my dad retired from the Post Office,” Tim said.
After she retired, Tricia continued to book trips for seniors through Omni Adventures up until COVID-19 travel restrictions.
“Even when she was in the hospital she called me and told me where in the house I could get the travel documents so I could call people and tell them that their trips were canceled and to make sure to get their refunds to them,” Tricia said. “She was always so organized and caring.”
Love and life lessons
His parents always taught their children about the value of hard work.
They worked hard to support their family and, like most couples, they worked hard at their relationship.
“They have a very typical relationship,” Tim said. “I think with people from that era, it doesn’t matter how happy you were or weren’t, you made it work.”
After their death, Tim started to hear stories about his parents that he didn’t know.
“A friend of mine, I don’t even know the situation honestly, but I guess he was homeless and living in his car and my mom would let him shower and sleep on the couch and she would make him food to eat in the car,” he said, holding back tears. “I had no idea.”
Later in life, his father developed a lot of health issues and Betty cared for him for more than a decade.
When they started to hear about COVID-19 cases in Fort Worth, Curtis hunkered down while his wife carefully made essential errands.
Then in March, Tim, a personal trainer, became temporarily unemployed and spent more time at his parent’s house.
“I tried to do work when I was over there, I rebuilt the pool system and cleared some junk out of the back and I think my relationship with them got even better in these last couple of months,” he said.
His mom started to feel sick a few weeks ago. She thought it was a sinus infection or toothache. Tim dropped her off at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital. She tested positive on June 9.
Tim later took a COVID-19 test, but it came back negative. He went home and warned his dad to stay active and to let him know if he started to feel sick.
“He told me Thursday (June 11) that he was feeling weak so I said, ‘Let’s go,’” Tim said. “I took him to the hospital Thursday afternoon and his first two tests were negative but they admitted him.”
The following Monday, Tim tested positive. Curtis grew more sick and was tested again. The third one came back positive.
Because of Tim’s positive result, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price had to quarantine herself and get tested. He is her personal trainer.
Both Tim and Tricia said they knew their parents were ready to go.
“My mother always said she didn’t want to live to be 100 and she very much believed this world was temporary and it was a stop on going off to a better place,” Tricia said. “She knew something better was coming and she was fine with that.”
When the couple’s health began to deteriorate, the hospital workers moved them into the same room.
They died on June 18. Their bodies will be donated to the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Tricia said.
“I don’t know how one would have survived without the other,” she said. “I’ve had so many people tell me, ‘I’m so sorry you lost them both,’ but I almost think it would have hurt worse. They’re together. Neither one of them had to grieve for the other one. For them it was perfect.”
Tim broke the news to friends later that day.
“We lost our parents this morning and in true Tarpley fashion, they go close to the same time, holding hands,” Tim said in a Facebook Live video that day. “I still question that, you know? It seems like just a week ago they were both arguing about who should or shouldn’t be driving ... but anyway, I’ll buy that. It’s pretty romantic.”
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Fort Worth couple married 53 years died of COVID-19 while holding each other’s hands."
