When Barbara Bush first saw her future husband, she was only 16. They were at a Christmas dance and had just been introduced by a mutual friend, reports The Washington Post.

I thought he was the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on, she said. I couldnt even breathe when he was in the room. They married four years later, in 1945.

Toward the end of her life, when she was hospitalized one last time, she still felt that same breathless attraction toward her husband, exclaiming, My God, George, you are devastatingly handsome! in the hospital room.

Barbara Bush died at the age of 92 in April, followed eight months later by husband President George H.W. Bush, who died Nov. 30 at the age of 94.

After their lifelong marriage, their deaths in quick succession call to mind what researchers call the widowhood effect a precipitous rise in the risk of death after the passing of a spouse.

In the first three months after a spouses death, a widow or widower is at 30 to 90 percent increased risk of death from any cause. Afterward, that excess risk drops to 15 percent, but remains elevated.

The narrative that is easy to tell, and that is compelling and romantic, is that they die of a broken heart, said Deborah Carr, a sociologist at Boston University. Perhaps thats part of it, but there are other realistic factors that contribute as well.

In the year before her death, Barbara Bush had battled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, reported CNN . And while George H.W. Bushs cause of death was not immediately known, the former president had previously been diagnosed with vascular Parkinsonism, a movement disorder that affects the lower half of the body, reported The Associated Press .