Coronavirus death: Couple die holding hands after contracting the virus on a cruise ship

Jerry and Frances Williamson, married for more than 50 years, passed away after they contracted the deadly coronavirus on a cruise.

An elderly Mississippi couple died from the coronavirus just minutes apart while holding hands — after they contracted the deadly illness on a cruise ship, their pastor said.

Jerry Austin Williamson and his wife, Frances Jewel Bond Williamson, both 72, died hand-in-hand just six minutes apart last week, North Long Beach Baptist Church Pastor Rick Clark said Monday during the couple’s livestreamed funeral service.

The couple from Long Beach — who had been married for more than 50 years — regularly went on cruises, sometimes up to 20 trips per year. They often returned home with some type of sickness, Clark said.

“They were on cruises a lot,” he said. “If I’m not mistaken, it seems like every time they would come off a cruise, they’d be sick.”

So when relatives and friends learned the couple had become sick after their latest trip, it was relatively “normal,” Clark said.

“But then when we found out that Ms Frances had gone on a ventilator … Jerry called me right after that happened and you could tell the tears in his eyes,” Clark said. “He was scared to death.”

The Williamsons were married for more than 50 years and were regular cruise travellers. Picture: Facebook.

The couple tested positive for COVID-19 and Jerry was also later hospitalised and put on a ventilator, Fox News reports.

It’s unclear where the couple had travelled on their most recent cruise or which line they took.

Jerry Williamson, a US Navy veteran, worked as a public works supervisor at the US Naval Home in Gulfport prior to his retirement. Frances Williamson spent her career working as a phlebotomist, according to their obituary.

The couple is survived by their two children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. They will be buried at Biloxi National Cemetery at a later date, according to their obit.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission