93-Year-Old Man Eats Lunch Next to Late Wife’s Photo Daily

A 93-year-old man from Georgia is proving that marriage can go beyond the words “’til death do us part.”

Clarence Purvis lost his wife, Carolyn, after 64 years of marriage, but that has not stopped him from setting lunch dates with his late wife at his favorite restaurant in town every day, according to People.

The widower props up the picture of Carolyn next to him on a table whenever he sits for meals at Smith’s Restaurant in Reidsville. He always eats there because it is where he used to dine with her for the last 13 years of their marriage.

“Ain’t nobody loved one another more than me and my wife loved one another,” Clarence told WTOC. “I wanted what she wanted and she wanted what I wanted.”

Clarence met Carolyn in 1948 in Glennville when he was 24 and she was 16, and the two have been inseparable ever since. They even co-owned a business called Purvis Garage.

Carolyn died in 2013 at age 81, but she left behind a legacy as a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, according to her obituary. She left behind three children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

But despite the couple’s physical separation, Clarence still feels her presence.

“She was always with me when we were livin’. She’s with me now,” he said.

People around the town have noticed Clarence’s affection for his late wife, even suggesting that he go out and get a girlfriend to combat his loneliness.

“They said if I get me a girlfriend things will be better,” Clarence said. “I could ask her, could I get me a girlfriend? You know what she’d say? If you want to. That’s how we operated.”

Clarence is so dedicated to keeping Carolyn’s memory alive that he visits her gravesite at Glennville Cemetery four times a day and keeps her favorite living room lamp on at all times.

“I love her that much, and miss her that much,” he said. “And think she would with me.”