The love of a lifetime: As George H.W. Bush passes away just eight months after bidding a tearful farewell to his wife Barbara, how their 73-year marriage stayed strong until the very end (79 Pics)

The couple met at a Christmas dance in 1941, when they were teenagers  George HW Bush and Barbara Pierce married on January 6, 1945, s...

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• The couple met at a Christmas dance in 1941, when they were teenagers 
• George HW Bush and Barbara Pierce married on January 6, 1945, shortly after he returned from fighting in World War II with the Navy
• They had six children together: Former President George W, Jeb, Neil, Marvn, Dorothy, and Robin, who died from leukemia when she was just three years old
• The former president and first lady also had 14 grandchildren
• George died on Friday night, according to his spokesman 
• He passed away at the age of 93 just eight months after laying his wife to rest at his presidential library in College Station 
• Barbara passed away at her home on Wednesday, on April 14 at the age of 92, two days after she fell seriously ill and refused medical treatment
• Her husband was by her side as she passed, having held her hand all day

Saying farewell: George HW Bush passed away just eight months after bidding farewell to his wife Barbara, who was laid to rest on Saturday, April 21

Tribute: The former president, who paid tribute to his late wife's dedication to family literacy by wearing book-printed socks to her funeral

Heartbreak: George, who broke down as his son Jeb read one of his love letters to his wife, passed away on Saturday, after being admitted to hospital with blood poisoning

A love that stood the test of time: George and Barbara, pictured in February 2017, were married for an incredible 73 years, having tied the knot on January 6, 1945

Sentimental: He signed off his letters 'Poppy', and joked that he was her 'public fiance as of 12/12/43' after their engagement was officially announced in the newspaper

The next step: George and Barbara, pictured in 1945, soon moved to Texas, where he began making his mark on the oil industry, and the couple grew their family together 

Raising a family: George HW and Barbara had six children during their marriage, including future president George W Bush (pictured) 

Happy family: The couple are pictured in the yard of their Texas ranch with their children Pauline and George W in a Vogue shoot for a 1950 issue of the magazine

Growing brood: Barbara and her husband had six children together. They are pictured with Neil, Marvin, Jeb, Dorothy and George W

Family first: Many of the tributes that were posted to Barbara on social media praised her unfailing commitment and devotion to her family 

Tragedy: Barbara and George's daughter Robin, who was born in December 1949, tragically passed away from leukemia just weeks before her fourth birthday

Heartache: Barbara told her granddaughter Jenna Bush Hager in a 2012 interview that she believes Robin would be the first person her husband would see when he dies

Family first: The couple had 14 grandchildren together. George is pictured with Pierce, Marshall, Barbara, Lauren, Jenna, Ashley Bush, and Sam LeBlond at Camp David

A lasting legacy: Shortly before George died, he welcomed another great-grandchild; his granddaughter Lauren Bush Lauren gave birth to her second son with husband David

Priority: The couple, pictured with their children and grandchildren in 2008, fostered incredibly strong family ties, and Barbara was often praised for her devotion to her family 

Support system: Barbara was by her husband's side throughout his career. They are pictured on June 6, 1964 when George was running as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate

Celebration: George and Barbara are pictured embracing on the night of his 1966 election to the House of Representatives for Texas' 7th Congressional District in Houston

Success: Barbara and George are pictured with then-President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy after the first couple announced their support of Bush's presidential campaign 

Together: Barbara and George, pictured in September 1988, moved the family to Washington, D.C. where he served as Vice President to Ronald Reagan for two terms before succeeding him

Right-hand woman: Barbara is pictured alongside her husband as he took the Oath of Office in January 1989, weeks after the couple celebrated their 44th anniversary 

The first couple: Barbara, who is pictured with her husband in the White House, often spoke about her role as his closest confidante, saying she never tried to influence his politics

A picture is worth a thousand words! Baraba and George are seen reacting after he accidentally stepped on her toe while they were boarding Air Force One in September 1989

Quiet time: Barbara supported her husband as he spent 12 years in D.C. serving as Vice President and then President. They are pictured in August 1991 at their vacation home in Maine

Happy: In her 1994 autobiography, Barbara, pictured in 1997, revealed she suffered a bout of depression in the mid-70s, and said at the time she 'almost wondered why he didn't leave me'

Still laughing! Barbara, pictured with her husband in 1997, after he made a parachute jump in Arizona, once said part of her job in the White House was to tell her husband 'you're great'

Thumbs up: Later in life, the couple attended numerous sporting events together, including the Tennis Masters Cup tournament in Houston, where they are pictured in November 2004

In love: George and Barbara proved the romance was still alive when they happily puckered up for the kiss cam at a baseball game in Houston in May 2010

Against the odds: The couple faced many challenges together. Just last year, George, who is pictured with Barbara in 2012, was accused of inappropriately touching half a dozen women

Affectionate: Barbara and George remained very much in love; she can be seen sweetly applying sunscreen to the nose of her husband at a Houston Astros baseball game in 2015

Barbara Bush was buried in this plot on the grounds of the Bush Library at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, and George H.W. Bush will be laid to rest beside her 

The presidential seal is seen just inside the iron gate at the entrance to the future gravesite of George H.W. Bush

George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara wave to supporters in Houston, Texas after winning the 1988 presidential election

Things to Know about George H.W. Bush 

George H.W. Bush was largely known for his work in public office, from his time as a Texas congressman and CIA director to his years in the White House as president and Ronald Reagan's vice president. 

But the World War II hero and great-grandfather also was an avid skydiver, played in the first-ever College World Series and was the longest-married president in U.S. history.

Here's a closer look at those and other elements of his life:

NICKNAMES: George H.W. Bush was known to his family as 'Poppy.' His wife said her husband was named after his maternal grandfather, who was known as 'Pops,' so the younger Bush was called 'Little Pops.' 

The nickname evolved into Poppy, which Bush 'hated as he got older, but it was hard to break such a long-standing habit,' Barbara Bush wrote in her memoir. But his grandchildren knew him as 'Gampy,' a name he embraced.

MEETING HIS WIFE: Bush met his wife at a dance in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1941. He was a 17-year-old high school senior, while she was 16 and attending school in Charleston, South Carolina, and home for Christmas. 

The band was playing Glenn Miller tunes, but when he asked her to dance, the music changed to a waltz. He didn't how to waltz, so they talked. They were married on Jan. 6, 1945, and were the longest-married presidential couple. She died on April 17, 2018

THE SEA: Bush's lifelong love of the sea and boats began in Maine, with his grandfather teaching him how to handle and dock a boat. At age 9, he and his 11-year-old brother were first allowed to take out their grandfather's lobster boat by themselves. 

Bush wrote in a 1987 book that he loved 'the physical sensation of steering a powerful machine, throttle open.' In 2010, to enjoy at his home in Maine, he bought a 38-foot fishing boat, Fidelity V, equipped with three 300-horsepower engines and capable of reaching 75 mph.

THE AIR: During World War II, Bush was one of the Navy's youngest pilots when he was shot down during a 1944 bombing mission. He parachuted into the Pacific Ocean and was rescued by an American submarine. 

He fulfilled a wartime promise to himself to someday skydive just for fun in 1997, when at age 73 and over his family's objections, he bailed out over a military base in Arizona, 'to show that old guys can still do stuff,' he said. He later marked his 75th, 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays with parachute jumps.

BASEBALL: As a first baseman and captain of his baseball team at Yale University, Bush played in the first-ever College World Series in 1947. 

His team lost to the University of California. Yale again reached the College World Series finals in 1948 and this time lost to Southern California. Sparky Anderson, who would win the World Series as manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers, was a batboy on the Southern Cal team.

OIL: Bush learned the oil industry in West Texas, starting in 1948 as an equipment clerk for an oilfield services company. He drove from New England to Texas in a 1947 Studebaker and ordered his first chicken fried steak — a Texas staple — at a restaurant in Abilene, wondering if it was chicken or steak but trying to fit in. 

The deep-fried steak smothered in gravy became a Bush favorite. A restored 1947 Studebaker identical to the one he owned is on display at his presidential museum at Texas A&M University.

GULF WAR: The signature event of Bush's presidency was the 1991 Gulf War. But when he ordered U.S. troops to Kuwait, he acknowledged, he was prepared for the worst. 'We feared it would go badly,' he told The Associated Press in 2011, on the 20th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm. 

'But it went far more clean ... far more quickly, far less loss of our lives and Iraqi lives, than we worried about. It was very rewarding.'

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Bush said he wrote one letter-to-the-editor as president, and it went to The New York Times regarding a story about him being out of touch because he didn't know about grocery store price-scanning devices.

'I was — I thought — smeared by an ugly story,' he said in a 1999 C-SPAN interview. Bush said his remark describing the device as 'amazing' came at a convention showing off the new technology and was portrayed by 'some lazy little reporter ... (who) wasn't even there. ... And the damn story lived on.'

HORSESHOES: During his White House years, Bush annually held two horseshoe tournaments with teams made up of everyone who worked there, including groundskeepers, pilots, cooks and gardeners. 'One of the best things we did,' he recalled during a 2000 interview with Time magazine. 

He headed the ranking committee, making himself and son Marvin the top seeds. The horseshoe pits were by the southwest gate on the White House grounds, and the sounds of clanging horseshoes could be heard daily as workers practiced ahead of the tournaments.

FINAL RESTING PLACE: After suffering an irregular heartbeat in 2000, he told reporters as he was released from a Florida hospital that mortality was something he thought about 'but not with fear.' 

'If you've got faith, you don't think of it with fear.' His burial site, behind his presidential museum in College Station, Texas, is near a pond and across a footbridge over a creek where three large post oaks form a semicircle. 

'The loveliest resting spot I have ever seen,' Barbara Bush once described it. Their daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953, was moved to the site in 2000, and Barbara Bush was buried there in April 2018.