DETROIT, MI - A Michigan couple who rarely spent a day apart in 56 years of marriage died on the same day in the hospital.

Judy and Will Webb of Southgate, Michigan, both 77, were holding hands before they died in a hospice center on March 6, their daughter, MaryBeth Webb, told WXYZ.

They first connected at the age of 14. Their daughter said Judy would write letters to him when he enlisted in the military.

"They just became friends and have been together ever since," MaryBeth Webb said.

Later, Will Webb worked nights as a printer and Judy Webb worked days at a local hospital. She would stay up late to wait for him to get home every night.

The couple rarely spent a day apart before their health started to decline late last year, their daughter said.

In December, Judy Webb's health began to suffer following a medical procedure that "basically didn't go well," MaryBeth Webb told The News-Herald. She suffered from an infection that almost killed her on New Year's Eve and was taken to a hospital, where she remained on a ventilator, their daughter said.

Will collapsed from exhaustion the next day.

“My dad — seeing her like that — it was too much for him,” MaryBeth Webb told the newspaper. “From that point on, everything that happened to her happened to him in a different place."

When Judy Webb spiked a fever, so did her husband. When she began to suffer from congestion, he got pneumonia, and their health failures continued to parallel each other's until they died, their daughter said.

After Will Webb was put into hospice care, his wife requested that she be placed there too.

On the day they died, their beds had been pushed together and they were holding hands, MaryBeth Webb told WXYZ. Will died at 2 a.m., and Judy died just hours later, their daughter said.

She continued, "When my dad died, my mom just kind of – she wasn’t responsive at all, verbally - but you could see her pick up her hand and she was rubbing my dad’s hand like, 'I’ll be there soon.'"

MaryBeth Webb said her parents "didn't want to live without each other," describing their relationship as "a great love story."

"I’m happy that they went together and don’t have to suffer losing each other, but it’s still hard," MaryBeth Webb told The News-Herald.

The couple leaves behind three daughters, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, according to their obituary.