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They were married for 66 years and had just celebrated their wedding anniversary. But early Monday Kevin and Maureen Gallagher passed away 20 minutes apart at home. Leah Tebbutt tells her story of life, love and devotion.
“Where you go I go.”
These were the words that Maureen Hollis said to her future husband when they met. Kevin Gallagher was explaining to the young woman he was courting that he lived and worked at the stations in the back block around Gisborne.
Little did she know the words would ring true more than 66 years later.
Maureen Gallagher took her last breath around 6 a.m. on Monday this week, and just 20 minutes later, so did Kevin at the house they shared in Tauranga.
“‘Where you go I go.’ Something appropriate, I think, “the couple’s youngest son, Craig Gallagher, tells me as we sit and soak up the image of their lives written on the walls in countless picture frames.
On October 2, the couple celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary and the years they spent together raising eight children and placing the importance of family.
But their greatest love was for each other.
“She was everything to him, that’s for sure,” says Craig Gallagher.
“Dad wasn’t ready to leave until she did, he didn’t want to leave her behind, he told me.
“And mom never said anything, but I think she was waiting for him to leave.”
Kevin Gallagher left home at the age of 14 and went to milk and soon became a pastor. But it was through her sister that she met her soulmate, as both women worked in the hospital laundry in Gisborne.
Both were born in 1931, the couple married at the age of 22. In the 1970s, they had moved to the Bay of Plenty due to rumors that the Mount Maunganui Pier would become the next Auckland.
There he worked unloading boats, while at home he spent his days in his large garden and fixed the house or cars as needed.
While he never had a trade, Kevin took it upon himself to solve the problem, something he passed on to his children, Craig said.
“They worked well together, Dad went out and worked, he brought home the bacon, so to speak, but Mom ran the house,” says her son.
“They were really loving people, totally committed to their family. Their support and strength in difficult times was second to none. Great parents, great role models.”
About 20 years ago, the couple decided to subdivide their section where they lived in Gate Pa and build their retirement home, complete with all the amenities they might have needed in their old age, including a shower with wheelchair access.
The couple also enjoyed fleeting fame in 2002 when they were featured on the cover of the Bay of Plenty Times after winning a 1973 Datsun 240Z.
Maureen was diagnosed with dementia about five years ago and just four months ago Kevin was given two months to live due to pulmonary complications.
“They never wanted to enter a house, that’s why they built it, they were determined.”
That’s why in February, when Kevin fell and broke his femur, Craig moved into the garage to take better care of him.
But after another fall, Craig decided to sleep in the guest room with his father, prompting the couple to talk all night.
“It was an honor, I feel really blessed by that opportunity.”
But just after celebrating their anniversary this month, Kevin and Maureen Gallagher’s health deteriorated and the couple were left bedridden.
On Friday, the family supported each other, as Kevin and Maureen had taught them, and three days later, surrounded by their loved ones, they both died.
“The last words he said, he just asked how mom was doing.”
Due to his medication, Kevin did not know that his Maureen had died when he ran away.
On Friday, the couple will rest, side by side in the only coffin in the Pyes Pa cemetery.
“It’s a bit bittersweet, you lose your parents, but we wouldn’t want it any other way,” says Craig.
Hope Family Funeral Services Director Tony Hope said that the Gallaghers’ deaths within minutes of each other was a beautiful story and that he felt privileged to be a part of it.
“This is the first time I have experienced the passing of a couple so close together and the first time I have realized that a couple has been buried in the same coffin.
“We had to check with the cemetery if it could be done and they also had to check because they hadn’t experienced it before. But it’s a wonderful thing to do it in a small way to help the family.”
For more than 20 years, the Gallaghers’ physician, Geoff Esterman of Gate Pa Medical Center, cared for the couple.
“They were a lovely couple with a lovely, supportive family, who have been a pleasure to care for for the past 23 years,” Esterman told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Kevin and Maureen are survived by their eight children, Jacqui Harris, Anne and Charlie Scanlon, Trish and Doug Rehutai, Paul, Robert and Anita, Kim and Paula, Brian and Maree and Craig.
They also leave behind their 21 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
A Requiem Mass will be held for them at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Tauranga on Friday at 1.30pm.
