CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. – Norman Hendrickson was known for telling jokes and never wasting money. So when he died suddenly while en route to his wife’s funeral, the couple’s daughters knew there was only one thing to do: Hold a doubleheader service.

The 94-year-old World War II veteran’s impromptu wake was held Saturday at the same eastern New York funeral home where his wife Gwen’s funeral was already scheduled. She was 89 when she died on Feb. 8. After Norman died just steps from the funeral home, the daughters decided their parents would be mourned together at the same time.

The daughters said it was a fitting way to say goodbye to a couple who had been married for nearly 66 years.

“We felt we couldn’t have written a more perfect script,” Norma Howland told the Post-Star of Glens Falls. “My sister said the only thing he didn’t do was fall into the casket.”