This is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read in my whole life… 
Each specific element of it is something everyone dreads-- spouse’s death, one’s own incapacity, the length of time, the beloved pet… damn. The mind recoils from even trying to imagine what they went through.
I saw reporting that his pacemaker showed atrial fibrillation on the day of his death. It makes sense that it was a cardiac event, an arrhythmia contributed to by any of a number of factors, underlying heart disease, electrolyte imbalance from not eating or not taking his medication. On further review I can’t see whether it was chronic or new. It’s pretty easy to get a time of death if you have a pacemaker, though; you just note when the heartbeat stops.
Posting without reading.
I read an article earlier that Arakawa seems to have died before Hackman… like a week before. If that’s true, it’s chilling.
I just can’t fathom they didnt have a daily maid, chef, yard help. That were there at least some of the time.
He was a major star. They usually live different from us common folk.
Really, if Gene was so impaired by Alzheimer’s that he could not summon help for his wife’s collapse, the wife should have been aware of his condition. She should not have been the sole caregiver. There should have been people paid to check in and help.
Money would not be a problem. Was the wife keeping him isolated? That’s abuse.
“Plaque” is kind of misleading here. There is plaque that you scrape off your teeth with a brush, which is a different substance fro the choleterol-derived plaque that clogs your arteries. Alzheimers is characterized by “amyloid plaques” which are troublesome extra-cellular formations that appear in the grey matter and have absolutely nothing to do with heart disease (other than perhaps compromising signalling between the brain and the heart).
His wife died and it’s HER fault he died after her. What was WRONG with her, dying even though she had money and leaving poor Gene. ABUSE!
Put more kindly, it seems far more likely that the wife was either in over her head, or had previously been managing fine, and didn’t realize she would need backup. For all we know she had lined up a couple of interviews for next week.
If you’ve ever tried to get an otherwise independent elder to accept help toward the tail end of their life, you might know that it’s a very uphill battle.
Being six months younger than Betsy Arakawa, and not fully disabused of the illusion of my hale & heartiness, I can imagine her state of mind. However, independent living facilities and assisted living facilities are not mutually exclusive.
If people here want to speculate on what happened, go for it. But judging the wife or kids based on your random-ass speculation is pretty lame.
You know a bunch of people need to be aware.
You got an aged relative. No matter you’re sick yourself of a deadly illness, be sure you know it before its too late. <s
Its not his wifes fault she died first. Its not her fault he was so ill.
How can you even think of blaming her?
I said upthread I can’t believe they didn’t have daily help, of some sort.
People live how they want.
So they should.
Have you not read any of the articles about their lives in NM?
I don’t think her suddenly dropping dead and leaving him alone was on her bingo card of concerns.
There is a definite case to be made for having help with an impaired loved one, just for your own ability to have self-care. Even when you think you got this and are worried that the new face may be confusing to your impaired spouse.
But labeling that as “abuse” seems way off base.
No. I didn’t read much.
I knew a caretaker person found them. But if a maid came in she would of course, noticed.
So apparently there wasn’t one.
Was there a reason given why?
Assuming that some of us have not, please feel free to share what you’ve read. (I’m guessing, based on your post, that they were living a very private life.)
Think about yourself in your mid-60s and very fit as she was you don’t bring something like hantavirus into your thinking.
They were a private couple but out in the community and Gene was riding bicycle until a year ago.
If she was like my partner she would never have anyone for housework.
Just bad luck with the hantavirus killing her suddenly. I feel sorry for Gene …that last week must have been extremely bewildering. 
Just to be clear, susceptibility to hantavirus has nothing to do with age or physical condition. In the example I linked upthread, hantavirus killed a healthy 26-year-old. The reason it doesn’t enter into most people’s thinking – including, in that case, tragically the thinking of medical professionals – is that it’s very rare. But it’s a killer.
Exactly. Hackman retired there to get away from Hollywood and devote himself to painting and writing. Betsy was described as being a veritable force of nature, and presumably determined to take care of their needs. As @MacDoc just posted,
Plus, yard work is usually done by workers you don’t interact with, who would have had no reason to notice what was going on inside the house. I haven’t seen my yard guys in years because they come while I’m at work. Maids/cooks are hardly needed with only 2 people, one of whom likely eats very little and doesn’t make much of a mess anymore. A home nurse would have been useful, but Gene may not have been that far gone yet; for example, he may have still been able to toilet on his own with guidance from his wife. She was still able to go to town for an hour or so while he was on his own.
Anybody than can afford to hire maids does not do everything themselves.
I don’t know one person who willingly cleans toilets if they can get out of it.
I cannot
imagine it.
I guess if you say so, its true.
I guess the yard help just happened by a window or something.
I certainly hope they don’t have the hantavirus.
It’s not contagious human to human. A person gets it from being in contact with mouse droppings.
My partner does her own yard work on out reasonably extensive tropical property AND does it for her dottor who lives on a slightly larger property because it is something she loves to do …and keeping up with property in the wet tropics where if you plant a stick it sprouts leaves ( no I’m not kidding ) is Augean.
She does it because she loves it.
Gene’s property would be semi-aid desert, very different set of parameters but the same love of the outdoors and the local vegetation ( ours is pretty much native rain forest as much as possible ).
Just because people have wealth for help on no way means they will use it for that.
Clearly they had some ground keeper help but only every two weeks - that’s who saw the bodies.
Some people do not want the intrusion of staff into their home…partner is one of those tho she’s finally stopped climbing the ladder to clear the eves. 
In some ways it is a fitting end to a very long close relationship and their accomplishments both professionally and as a family should be cause for celebration not dissecting shoulda woulda at the very end.