A devoted elderly couple carried out a suicide pact because they didn't want to live without each other.
Howard and Jacqueline Titteron took their own lives after learning that Mr Titterton only had a short time left to live, an inquest has found.
The couple , who said they had lived "a great life" wrote a letter agreeing they wanted to die, with neither putting pressure on the other.
Mr Titterton, 80, a retired research and development officer with St Helens -based glass manufacturers Pilkington , had been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer and was receiving palliative care at home.
His wife - a former nurse - was helping to care for him, reports North Wales Live.
In one of several jointly-signed letters left for friends, the police and their solicitor, the couple wrote: "Neither one of us wishes to live without the other."
Teenager slashed in the face and legs after gang ambush
An inquest was told that their deaths were planned meticulously, and they left a key with their next-door neighbours for the police to enter their home and put labels on items with the names of people who were to receive them.
Details of the double tragedy emerged at the inquest in Ruthin when David Pojur, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, recorded conclusions of suicide on Mr and Mrs Titterton, who were found dead in their home in Bishop’s Walk in St Asaph on November 13 last year.
Their next-door neighbour in St Asaph, Denbighshire county councillor Andrew Thomas, said in a statement that Mr Titterton had begun looking frail but seemed “OK” a few days before his death.
His wife Susan Thomas described them as "lovely people" and said the tragedy came as a shock, although she had thought it odd that Mrs Titterton had given her a park-and-ride ticket for Chester the previous day, telling her she would not be using it.
On the morning of November 13, Cllr Thomas found an envelope through his door containing £500 and a note indicating that they had killed themselves.
New restaurant plan for old Waterstones building on Bold Street
"I wondered if I was reading what I was," he said.
Mrs Thomas called 999, as the couple had asked, and when officers arrived they found Mr Titterton lying in an empty bath covered by a blanket and a dressing gown, and his wife was on the bed.
Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers said Mrs Titterton, 78, died of suffocation and her husband’s death was consistent with the same cause.
The inquest heard both had died a short time apart, and Mrs Titterton had apparently put the blanket and dressing gown over her husband.
Among those who received letters on the day on which the bodies were found was Anthony Jones, a close friend from their childhood days, with whom they had spent numerous holidays.
He said the Tittertons, who had no children, enjoyed travelling, especially cruises, and shared the same hobbies of music and photography.
