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When the doctor told Jimmy Stewart was time to change his pacemaker battery, James Stewart, 88, replied with gentle firmness: “I’m going to Gloria now.” He had already decided. He didn’t want to prolong his life—he wanted to return to the love of his life. At 39, he met Gloria Hatrick McLean. She was already the mother of two children, recently divorced. On August 9, 1949, they were married in a simple ceremony with only 18 guests. When Gloria died in 1994, Jimmy slowly faded with her. He stopped going out. He refused awards and interviews. He spent his days in Gloria’s garden, talking to her as if she were still there. In 1996, doctors told him they needed to replace his pacemaker battery—a simple procedure. But Jimmy refused. “I don’t want to go on living if my life no longer has a purpose,” he had said years earlier. And his purpose… was Gloria. On July 2, 1997, surrounded by his children in the home where they had lived their whole life, Jimmy Stewart passed away peacefully. He was 89. His last words were: “I’m going to Gloria now.” He wasn’t sad. He wasn’t afraid. He was ready. Because theirs wasn’t a love story meant for magazine covers. It was a deeper truth: that true love doesn’t end with death. It waits. Patiently. Until it can be reunited. In a world that teaches us to “always resist,” to “never depend on anyone,” Jimmy left us a different lesson: love is also choosing to let go when the soul you love is no longer here. He didn’t fight to live a few more years. He chose Gloria. Once again. Forever.