Devoted sisters die on same day

Two devoted sisters described as being "like two peas in a pod" died within hours of each other.

Betty Middleton and Brenda Collins had lived together in Forest Road, Dudley, all their lives. And as they were together in life, fate had it that they were together in death, dying at Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, just three hours apart.

Miss Middleton, aged 77, suffered a heart attack in her sleep before her sister, aged 73, died of pneumonia.

Their family said the timing was "what they would have wanted" as they would have struggled to cope without each other.

Mrs Collins's daughter Ann Fletcher said: "Neither of them would have wanted to be alone.

They died on February 12.

After leaving Wolverhampton Street school they both worked at the former Palethorpes factory in Tipton making pork pies and sausages.

Mrs Collins continued to live at Forest Road after she married in 1956. She left work in 1958 to have her daughter and later divorced.

Miss Middleton worked at Palethorpes for 20 years and later worked at British Federal, Dudley. She was said to be "devoted" to her mother Annie Middleton, looking after her until she died in 1975, aged 84.

Great-grandmother Mrs Collins took up disco dancing when she was in her 50s joining her granddaughter Victoria at classes in Dudley, while Miss Middleton was a fan of wordsearch books. Mrs Fletcher, aged 50, of Brook Street, Gornal Wood, said: "They both loved life. They were always going into the town shopping together. Everybody in Dudley knew them.

"They were often called the Cheeky Girls because they were always laughing and cracking jokes."