Wareham's Linda Mattos-Nix is sharing the story of the passing of her parents to prove to the world that true love does exist.

Her father passed away on January 24, and her mother passed away two days later, proving that you can, in fact, die of a broken heart.

“They were always with each other. Wherever they went, they did it together,” Mattos-Nix said of her late parents.

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Joseph E. Mattos, Sr., and Dorothy M. Mattos both grew up in Wareham and met as teenagers. They spent 68 years of their life together as husband and wife.

“They laughed a lot, and they were happy,” recalled Mattos-Nix. For the last four years, Joseph and Dorothy lived with their daughter, who took care of them and watched her parents take care of each other.

“I remember when she broke her hip, he waited on her hand and foot,” Mattos-Nix said. “He loved her so much, he took care of her.”

On Saturday, Joseph was rushed to the hospital after fainting. It turns out his pacemaker wasn’t working properly. He returned home the next day, but he wouldn’t stay long.

“The aid heard him say that Sunday to my mom, ‘Nana, I don’t have much longer,’” shared Mattos-Nix.

Sunday evening, she asked her parents if they wanted some dinner, and when they said no, she let them be. Thirty minutes later, when she went to check on them, Joseph had passed away next to Dorothy in bed.

Dorothy was heartbroken.

“She stopped eating, she stopped drinking, and she stayed in bed,” said Mattos-Nix. Two days later, she stopped breathing.

Mattos-Nix and her family are a family of God, and she believed God was at work when He came to take her parents.

“True love exists,” she said. Dorothy couldn’t fathom a life without Joseph and quietly passed in the night to join her husband in heaven.

This heartbreaking love story sounds like it’s straight out of a Nicholas Sparks novel, but this love story is a real one.

“They’re in heaven dancing, they are with the family that has gone before them,” Mattos-Nix said. The calmness and reassurance in her voice told me that she deeply loved her parents and understood that there could not be one without the other.

Love is powerful, love is real, and if we are lucky enough, we get to spend a life with the type of love that Dorothy and Joseph shared.

May they rest in peace.

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