EVERY week throughout their 67-year marriage Len Scorey bought his beloved wife Rene flowers.

It was typical of a relationship that spanned almost seven decades and during which they hardly spent a day apart.

When Rene died, Len told his family he was lost without her and just 11 days later the heartbroken 92-year-old passed away at the same hospital.

Their family are now preparing for a joint funeral where they will be laid to rest alongside each other.

Their daughter, Thelma Wateridge, 67, told the Daily Echo: "They were very much in love. They used to go shopping every week together and he would always buy her flowers. They'd never been parted before but couldn't even visit each other because my mum had caught norovirus."

Thelma, a retired theatre sister, of Cunard Avenue, Shirley, added: "After we told my father mum had gone, he just didn't want to go on without her. All he kept saying was he wanted to go. He said he was lonely.

"The situation was terrible but it would have been worse if he had lived on without her. Neither of them could have lived without each other."

Rene, 89, was admitted to Southampton General Hospital in November and died on January 3 due to complications from Crohn's disease.

While Rene was in hospital, Len fractured his neck and back after falling down stairs in their Romsey home. He caught pneumonia and died on January 14.

The pair met as teenagers in the late 1930s in Southampton's Woolworths store.

Lifelong Saints supporter Len, a former Army officer during the Second World War, was given just 48 hours' leave to marry Rene at Southampton Register Office before returning to the frontline in 1941.

After returning home Len became a local government pension officer while Rene worked as a secretary at Alan Rayment Estate Agents in Highfield.

Their story mirrors that of Eddie and Doris Hobley from Marchwood who died within days of each other after 60 years of marriage.

Chris Perry of Hampshire Age Concern said: "I know of several occasions when a partner has said they don't want to continue on their own."

The couple had one daughter, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A double funeral will take place at Southampton Crematorium next Tuesday at 10.30am.