A Texas couple that was just weeks shy of their 52nd wedding anniversary both died after their air conditioner in their house broke down during a sweltering heatwave.
Monway Ison, 72, and Ramona Ison, 71, were both discovered dead at their home in Baytown near the corpse of their pet dog on June 16.
The couple’s air conditioning unit failed them just four days earlier, having lasted through weeks of 100 degree days.
The Isons did not have the money – believed to be between $1,400 to $1,600 – to immediately fix the air conditioner, instead trying to get a loan for the next week – while boiling in their home.
They were able to get the loan money on the 15th but when the repairman showed up the next day, medical personnel were examining their dead bodies.
Monway Ison (pictured right), 72, and Ramona Ison (second from left), 71, were both discovered dead at their home in Baytown with their dog on June 16
‘They were gathering their things to leave, and the way that they were found, I think they decided that it was too hot and it was time to go and it was just too late,’ Roxanna Floods, the couple’s daughter, told AZFamily.
‘I’ve read about how disorienting the heat can be at that point, how exhausted that you feel and all the symptoms to watch out for. I don’t think they knew what to watch out for.’
Eddie Phillips, a neighbor whom Ramona Ison would often drive to appointments, said he called 911 after not seeing the couple out with their beloved dog that day.
‘I thought, ‘I better go check on them.’ I banged on the door. No answer. Went over there to the bedroom. Banged on the window. No answer. So that’s why I decided to call the police,’ he told ABC13.
‘They were gathering their things to leave, and the way that they were found, I think they decided that it was too hot and it was time to go and it was just too late,’ said daughter Roxanna Floods
They were able to get the loan money on the 15th but when the repairman showed up to their home the next day, medical personnel were examining their dead bodies
Phillips had offered the Isons both the use of his home while they waited for repairs and a mobile air conditioning unit, but they declined.
‘I think they thought that it would be OK,’ Floods said, noting they were Texas born and bred and used to the heat.
‘My dad worked outdoors in the heat for over 20 years at the golf course in Baytown, and so he was always outside in all of the elements, and the heat didn’t bother him,’ she told Insider.
Their deaths are two of seven tied to the heatwave that’s hit Texas and their home in Harris County since June.
The Isons did not have the money – believed to be between 1,400 to $1,600 – to immediately fix the air conditioner, instead trying to get a loan for the next week while boiling in their home
Floods said that the Isons ‘never had to spend the day apart’ in over 51 years of marriage
On the 12th, highs in Bayville were 99 degrees, according to the Weather Channel. They never dipped below 96 between then and the 16th.
‘It’s been devastating, it’s been devastating to our family,’ Flood said. ‘The heat, it’s just not a joke.’
Floods said that they’d ‘never had to spend the day apart’ in over 51 years of marriage.
She’s calling on greater awareness of the dangers of heat to prevent others from being killed by the sizzling temperatures.
‘I would love for something to be set up with these companies to warn people about how lethal this heat is If they don’t have the money to get their air conditioner fixed, to let them know that they’re literally staying inside an oven,’ she said.
