On the 2nd September 2012, my fiancé (partner of 10 years) Adam collapsed and later died of a heart attack. We were on the way to try food for our wedding day, that was due to take place on the 27th October 2012.
He was 28, fit and played football every weekend with training sessions during the week.
The evening before the 2nd September, we’d been out to the local pub and had a really good night. Strangely, I videoed Adam dancing – for most of the video he didn’t actually do any dancing but I stayed filming him. Adam used to get called Jagger (Mick Jagger – due to his big lips), the next song to come on during the video is ‘Moves like Jagger’. Then at the very end, Adam walks right up to the camera and it ends on his face. I couldn’t believe it when I watched it a few days later. So strange.
The morning of the 2nd September we were rushing around because we’d slept in.
We had to be at our wedding venue at 12, it was now 11am. Adam felt a bit worse for wear so I was going to drive. Even though he felt rough, he was really laughing about the night before and saying what a good night it was.
We set off at ten to 12 and there’d been an accident so Adam phoned the wedding venue to advise we’d be late. 12 minutes later we would be even later but for a very different reason.
Adam’s head fell to the side and his breathing started to get very shallow. I thought he was having a fit so I pulled over, undid his seat belt and lifted his chin to clear his airways. His eyes had gone funny. I knew he was going to die and a weird sense of calmness came over me. I called 999 and stopped oncoming traffic. Two people helped get him out of the car and started to work on him under the instructions of the person at the Ambulance HQ. The Paramedics came later, worked on him on the road for what seemed like forever. Then we got in the ambulance and went straight to A&E where he survived another 3 hours.
There were roughly 30 family members and close friends who turned up at the hospital that day.
His funeral was on the 15th September, which would have been my hen do, and over 600 people attended. It was the most beautiful service. His wedding speech was read out and his best friend in the entire world wrote and read his eulogy, which was beautiful.
It is fast approaching our wedding day so I’m bracing myself for this, but each day is getting a tiny bit easier. I’m just glad that spending 10 years with Adam have been the best years of my life.
Louise Ayre
