Phenix City couple experiences ‘Notebook’ ending

If you’ve ever watched “The Notebook” you know that there exists a special kind of love story capable of producing anything and that includes a miraculous way of departing this world together. For Gene Culpepper and his wife Denise that is exactly how the Phenix City couple’s enduring love story ended.

Tara Culpepper told NowGeorgia.com that her parents met on a blind date in England back in 1972. They married one month later and traveled the world together as her dad served with the Air Force. The Culpepper’s would spend the next 54 years together. They relocated back to Gene’s hometown of Phenix City in 1989 and raised two daughters Tara and Shelley together.

“It was truly a notebook story. They were on hospice for a year due to them both having the same illness, they were so in sync with everything that they did that. They even went to the hospital at the same time. They were inseparable. My dad started declining and was told that he only had a matter of days, he was nonverbal due to having multiple strokes, but my mom was coherent and talking and everything.”

The couple’s daughter Tara said last Wednesday just two days before their deaths her mother was singing Amazing Grace and reminiscing about her parents love story. “They made beautiful memories and shared a love like I have never seen before.”

Tara Culpepper explained that on Friday, September 11 “I went to go pick up their clothes for preparation for when the time was to come. I would have his uniform clean, he loved his country and served in the United States Air Force for 21 one years, so it was fitting that the Lord took him home on 9/11. When I returned home, I noticed that he had passed. I noticed that my mom wasn’t doing well so I told my mom I will be right back, I was going to take a shower, and I would be right back and when I returned to check on her, she had passed away also.”

Vance Brooks Funeral Home shared that Amos Eugene “Gene” Culpepper, 77, and Patricia Denise Barnes Culpepper, 76, of Phenix City, AL entered Heavens gates hand in hand on Friday, September 11, 2026, surrounded by their loving family. Faithful till the end to their wedding vows of better or worse, richer or poor, sickness or health and till death do us part.

Tara Culpepper said her parent’s story “is worth sharing to the world. Giving hope to the younger generation that hopefully will help keep them fighting for their marriages.” Funeral arrangements for the Phenix City couple are still being finalized at the time this report was published.