Around New England

Sisters Married on the Same Day Die on the Same Day

March 22, 2018

Rose and Rita Pelletier married brothers named Morissette on July 3, 1948 in a double ceremony at St. George’s Church in Westport, Massachusetts.

Rose, 92, and Rita, 89, both died last week, on March 15.

For years the couples had dessert together on Sunday nights, and they shared cookouts and clam boils, too, according to the Fall River Herald News. Their children grew up together.

Their husbands, Ray and Frederic Morissette, each died four years ago — also on the 15th day of the month (though different months).

The two couples went back to the same church in 2008 for a renewal of vows on the 60th anniversary of their weddings, according to the Herald News. It went smoother than the wedding, when Rita initially told the priest “No” — because he had asked her if she accepted as her lawful husband the wrong brother.

The couples endured tough times, including medical problems, but persevered. “Our faith has a lot to do with it,” Rita told an interviewer in 2008.

According to the Herald News, Rose, who had cancer, said to her daughter toward the end of her life about her sister Rita, who had Alzheimer’s, “We’re in a race to heaven, but I’m going to beat her.”

She did, by about 15 hours.