A devoted husband died of a broken heart just hours after telling his dying wife 'just close your eyes, I'm coming with you.'

In a scene that could have come straight out of a Hollywood movie George Pitman peacefully slipped away less than 24 hours after saying goodbye to his beloved wife of 55 years, The Daily Mail reports.

The doting great grandfather, who was seriously ill himself, kept a week long vigil at the hospital bedside of his wife, Pat, after she was admitted with a shadow on her lung. Nurses were forced to prepare a bed for the retired lorry driver alongside his 77-year-old spouse after he ignored their pleas to go to a different hospital for treatment.

Mr Pitman held his wife's hand and whispered 'Close your eyes, I'm coming with you,' as she slipped away. Just 21 hours later, he had died of a broken heart after suffering an aneurysm in his chest.

'They spent their whole lives inseparable, so this is what they would have wanted,' said their eldest daughter Jacqueline Gofton, 55.

'If they had been given a choice, this is the one they would have chosen. Dad died of a broken heart. It is just unbelievable how this has happened.' Mrs Pitman was admitted to the University Hospital of North Tees, Cleveland, on 13 November after medics detected a shadow on her lung. 

Despite being told he was critically ill, George refused to go to James Cook Hospital, 10 miles away in Middlesbrough. The inseparable couple met on a blind date and married on Valentine's Day 1959.

'After they met, dad had to go to Hong Kong for his national service,' said their second child, Angela Gould, 53.

'He was from West Bromwich, but he was based at Catterick and came to Hartlepool with his friend on a blind date. When he came back from Hong Kong after two years, he came straight back for her. He'd written to her every week and sent presents. They really were inseparable, they were never apart. It seems fitting that they even died together.'

The couple had five children, Jacqueline, Angela Gould, 53, Deborah Willis, 51, 50-year-old Paul and Gillian Cormack, 47, along with 14 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

The family are now preparing to say goodbye to the couple at a joint funeral.