Grandpa dies a week after his wife following freak accident when a Denny’s sign crushed their car
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A second elderly person died a week after his wife following a horrific freak accident after a giant 2,600-pound Denny’s sign in Kentucky crushed their car when high winds ripped it from its pole.
Lloyd Curtis, 77, already suffering from a serious heart condition, died Monday after his wife, Lillian Curtis, 72, was immediately crushed to death in Thursday’s crash, the family said.
Lillian had just picked up her husband from hospice care on Thursday before the incident occurred, the family told KVUE. She had undergone heart surgery at the University Hospital of Louisville three days before the accident, added Amy Nichols, her granddaughter.
The third passenger in the vehicle, the couple’s 58-year-old daughter, Mary Graham, who was driving, is still being treated for her injuries, including a concussion and five broken ribs, according to KVUE. Elizabethtown police believe strong gusts of wind blew her sign off her pole, causing her to fall onto the car in the parking lot.
Lillian, 72, had just collected Lloyd from the hospital after heart surgery. The 77-year-old man was in a hospice and was only given three months to live.
The family is believed to have stopped for a meal when the tragedy struck.
Lloyd was recovering from heart surgery and had been told he had three months to live, KVUE reported.
Amy Nichols, Curtis’s granddaughter, said: “He told the hospice nurse last night when she asked him what he wanted, and he said, ‘My wife’s back,’ and now she’s dancing with Nanny.”
Nichols told WLKY that the family is still searching for answers about the tragedy.
An autopsy will reveal whether Lloyd’s death was a direct result of the accident.
Nichols said the family plans to hold a double burial for Lloyd and Lillian.
Lillian Mae Curtis (left) was with her husband Lloyd Eugene Curtis Sr. (right) and daughter Mary Graham when a Denny’s sign fell on them, killing the grandmother.
Relatives took solace in the fact that Lilian’s death was instantaneous.
The family is believed to have stopped for a meal when the tragedy struck.
GoFundMe has raised more than $5,000 to help pay for the memorial expenses.
Lillian and Lloyd’s grandchildren said they were shocked by the tragedy that robbed their grandparents of what little time they had left together.
“It’s definitely not something you can really think about,” Graham’s daughter Mary Howard told KVUE.
“I don’t know if the shock has worn off, or the fact that we’re going home and life is going to go on without her.”
Last week, Denny’s said in a statement: “Safety is our top priority and we are working with authorities to better understand what led to this situation.”
“Our thoughts are with everyone involved.”
The couple and their daughter were believed to be stopping for lunch Thursday afternoon when the sign fell on their car amid 50mph gusts in Elizabethtown.
Dramatic video captured the moment the wind toppled the 2,600-pound sign. He fell and crushed the car Mrs. Curtis was sitting in
Lillian, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, became trapped in the vehicle and had to be removed by emergency workers.
Nichols told WDRB News that his head injury had been “catastrophic” and “inoperable.”
In a post on the GoFundMe page dedicated to Lillian, she wrote: “My nanny was loved by so many people and this loss has left a hole inside all of us.”
Howard told KVUE that his grandmother’s death had been “absolutely instantaneous and there was no way for her body to feel pain.”
Lloyd had been rushed to hospital with fluid in his lungs and was awaiting transfer back to the Jewish Hospital.
Lillian and Lloyd have been married for over 50 years and have over a dozen great-grandchildren.
Horrifying footage shows the car destroyed after the freak accident.
Loved ones fear that Lilian’s husband and daughter will be traumatized by witnessing her death.
Elizabethtown police spokesman Chris Denham said he was shaken by the accident.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Denham said.
“It’s certainly very windy here and I’m sure he had a factor and was involved in this.”
Crews who removed the sign from the scene said it weighed about 2,600 pounds, about the weight of a small car.
Nichols paid tribute online, saying she didn’t know how her family would manage without her.
Nichols said: “This woman here, my beautiful nanny Lillian Mae Curtis, was the matriarch of our family, she was the strongest woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”
‘I don’t know how I or my family can begin to live in a cold world without her in it.
She added: ‘She was my biggest support in life and always had me when no one else did. I’m so lost right now that I can’t even function.
‘She was my nanny, she was my second mom, she was everything to me. She would give my life to get her back.
‘I love you so much babysitter. I just want to hold you again and smell your cologne and tell you that I love you. How do I say goodbye to you? I wish it was me in that back seat, not you. I just want you back.
The investigation into the deaths is ongoing.