Bursting with pride and happiness, Jean Fray beams for the camera after watching her eldest daughter make her wedding vows .
The primary school teacher looks full of life as she poses for a family snap outside the church.
Nobody could have guessed the terrible tragedy that was about to unfold.
Yet within an hour fit and healthy Jean had collapsed after suffering a catastrophic brain haemorrhage at the drinks reception.
She slipped into unconsciousness and died the next day in hospital with her devastated daughter at her side – still wearing her wedding dress.
She slipped into unconsciousness and died the next day in hospital with her devastated daughter at her side – still wearing her wedding dress.
Today Marcia Holmes bravely tells how her fairy-tale castle wedding to boyfriend of five years Nick, 32, ended in utter heartbreak.
And as if her family hadn’t been through enough, Marcia’s devastated grandmother died on the day her daughter was cremated.
Marcia, 31, said: “What is keeping me going is that mum had a really good party on her last day and was the happiest I’ve ever seen her.
“I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, but the evening before the wedding I gave her a card and in that message I wrote everything I needed to say to her.
“She knew how much I loved her and we had such an amazing morning together getting ready for the wedding. They are memories I will treasure forever.
“After she died I saw messages on her phone that she’d sent friends telling them she was crying tears of joy.”
Marcia had spent 18 months planning her dream wedding to City worker Nick at 11th century Berkeley Castle in the Cotswolds.
Marcia had spent 18 months planning her dream wedding to City worker Nick at 11th century Berkeley Castle in the Cotswolds.
But it ended before their 120 guests had even sat down for the wedding breakfast.
Marcia, who grew up in Portsmouth but now lives in London, said: “As soon as mum fell ill I completely forgot it was my wedding day. Nothing mattered then except mum.
“I know she would be devastated that I never got a wedding reception, but I’m just so glad that she was there for the most important bit when we said our vows.
“The ceremony was the happiest moment in my life, but it happened on what became the saddest day of my life.”
Marcia takes comfort from the fact her mum felt no pain until shortly before she fell unconscious.
“She signed the register with Nick’s mum and everything was fine,” she said.
“I’ve looked back at the photos and there is nothing but pure happiness on her face.
“From the church we walked over to the castle, where we were having our drinks reception in a beautiful garden with a lily pond.
“It was there that mum started to feel ill and a friend came to tell me that she’d been sick.
“I went over to see her and she said she thought it was just because of all the excitement, so I wasn’t overly worried.
“Dad took her back to the house where we were staying for a bit of a lie down before the meal.”
“Dad took her back to the house where we were staying for a bit of a lie down before the meal.”
Marcia arranged with the caterers to delay their wedding breakfast by an hour and her brother Marvin, 34, and 13-year-old niece and bridesmaid Tiana went to check on Jean.
She said: “I was talking to a friend when Tiana came up to me and said: “Aunty Marcia, is there anyone here who’s a doctor?”
“I asked her why, I told her to tell me what was happening. She said she didn’t want to scare me but they thought my mum had had a stroke.
“I felt my knees buckle and quickly because hysterical. I just took my shoes off and sprinted back to the house.
“By the time I got there mum was already unconscious. Dad said she’d had a bad headache and was really confused.
“When she’d been falling unconscious he’d been asking her to say the names of her family to try and keep her with him, but she was just saying how she needed to put the washing out.“
“When she’d been falling unconscious he’d been asking her to say the names of her family to try and keep her with him, but she was just saying how she needed to put the washing out.“
Jean was rushed by ambulance to Southmead Hospital in Bristol, where doctors told Marcia’s distraught dad Les, 59, it was unlikely she would ever wake up.
Marcia, an account manager for financial firm Bloomberg, said: “My brother had gone in the ambulance with my dad and I was on my way to join them when he phoned to tell me that we needed to come to the hospital.
“We all rushed there. Myself and Nick, my sister Bethany and her fiancé, my uncle Gary, my Nan and my dad’s mum who had come over from Jamaica.
“I was in my wedding dress. We were all there in wedding clothes - in bridesmaid dresses and morning suits.
“We were told it was unlikely she would wake up, but they didn’t want to give up. They monitored her overnight until the next day when they were sure she was brain dead.
“We didn’t leave her side.”In a devastatingly sad moment as his wife slipped away from him, engineer Les read to Jean the father-of-the-bride speech that he never got a chance to give.
Marcia said: “It was just him and her, but afterwards I asked dad if I could read it too.
“In it he said how his greatest achievement in life was being married to my mum for 35 years. He said the key to a successful marriage was not finding somebody you can live with, but finding someone you can’t live without.
“Dad is strong, but this has been devastating for him. They’d worked hard all their lives and were looking forward to enjoying their retirement and growing old together.”
Jean was declared dead on June 25 – less than 24 hours after Marcia and Nick said their vows.
The couple later returned to the hospital with two tiers of their untouched wedding cake to give to staff as a thank you for their support.
Marcia said: “Everybody at the hospital was amazing and we wanted to do something to thank them. We took our wedding cake in for them and they asked us if we’d had a chance to cut the cake before mum fell ill.
“We said we hadn’t, so they asked us if we wanted to do it there and that’s what we did. Mum would have liked that.”
She would also have been proud to know that her organs had saved the lives of four others.
She would also have been proud to know that her organs had saved the lives of four others.
Marcia said: “On the morning of mum’s funeral service we received a letter telling us four people had received an organ transplant thanks to mum.
“They included a woman in her 50s who had been waiting 13 years for a kidney transplant and a little girl who needed a liver transplant.
“It was so nice to know that mum’s death had helped other people.”
But there was even more heartache to follow for Marcia and her family.
The following morning on July 20 – the day Jean was to be cremated – Marcia’s beloved Nan Audrey Simmons also died, aged 86.
She had suffered a stroke a week after her daughter’s death and deteriorated quickly.
She had suffered a stroke a week after her daughter’s death and deteriorated quickly.
Marcia said: “Nan was heartbroken when mum died. Her and mum were really close and when we were in the hospital she was in denial. She kept saying that she was going to be ok, that she was going to wake up.”
Marcia and Nick cancelled their safari honeymoon to Tanzania and are instead getting ready to join 20,000 others in running the 10-mile Simplyhealth Great South Run in Portsmouth on October 22 in memory of Jean.
Marcia said: “It’s so hard to understand how my mum, who was so fit and healthy, could become so very ill so quickly.
“So we wanted to raise money for the Stroke Association which funds research into strokes and brain haemorrhages.
“Mum was simply the kindest person ever. When we were little she wouldn’t allow us to say the word hate - it was as bad as a swear word. And that just sums her up.“It is very hard knowing that whatever the future holds for Nick and I, my lovely Mama won’t be in our lives, but she will never be forgotten.“
No comments:
Post a Comment