Arthur Burch said that he wanted to fall asleep with his wife again. She has been living in a retirement home since 2007.
Ever since Arthur Burch's wife moved to a retirement home in 2007, he has missed sleeping beside her.
So the 76-year-old decided to get a tattoo of her portrait on his chest - right by his heart - so that they could be together again, he told the Dothan Eagle.
Burch got the tattoo to celebrate 59 years of marriage to his wife, Patricia, 77. Just below her portrait is the date of their wedding anniversary, 12-21-56.
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Every day at noon, Burch visits his wife, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007, at the retirement center to feed her lunch. He has not missed a single day.
"We said 'til death do us part', and we meant it," Burch told the Dothan Eagle.
Tattoo artist Don Childree of Good Luck Tattoo & Piercing Parlour said he has never inked someone of Burch's advanced years. Childree told INSIDE EDITION that he completed the portrait of Patricia last December.
"Their story is like the real-life The Notebook," he told INSIDE EDITION. "They met when they were teenagers."
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Speaking to the Dothan Eagle, Burch recalled his younger years with his sweetheart. They married when she was 18 and he was just 17, he said.
"She used to do a lot of roller skating, and I used to watch her skate," he said.
Their tips for a lasting marriage?
"We never went to bed mad at each other," he said. "We always tried to work things out before we went to sleep."
Now, thanks to Childree's tattoo, they'll be sharing a bed once more.
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