I married the love of my life but within hours he was dead
THE day Elaine Wallace tied the knot with her husband Colin was the happiest day of her life, and the saddest.
Because within hours of their wedding, tears of joy turned to heartbreak as Colin lost his life to cancer.
The couple, who just weeks earlier had confirmed their engagement, were dealt the devastating blow that Colin, 61, had sinister shadows on his lungs.
The cancer quickly spread to his spine and, eight weeks later, he died in St Columba’s Hospice in Edinburgh with his new wife by his side.
Elaine, of Dalgety Bay, Fife, who met her husband through rehearsals for a Passion play, has told of their life together and revealed how Easter holds precious and heart-breaking memories.
The 47-year-old said: “It was through the Edinburgh Easter play that we met in 2014. But a year passed before we saw each other again when we were both involved in the play. We became really good friends and I noticed he was fiercely intelligent. We spent more and more time together through the summer, we did the nativity play together that year and my eyes were just opened. I fell completely in love. We had a wonderful Christmas together”
Despite claiming he wasn’t romantic, Colin proposed to Elaine on Valentine’s Day. “He had a ring, he went down on bended knee and had arranged flowers,” said Elaine. “He said, ‘Will you marry me’ and I didn’t think twice. I joked it was a leap year so if he hadn’t asked me by the end of February, I would.”
The couple were busy making plans for the future and had penned a date in June for their wedding.
But Colin, 61, an English teacher from Edinburgh, was complaining about a pain in his back that wouldn’t go away.
Mother-of-three Elaine said: “We were looking at June 4 because I’m a teacher and that’s a school holiday. Our plan was to go to Ullapool with just our witnesses and come back to have a big party. But by early March Colin had been told he had months to live.
Elaine said: “He was admitted to the Western for four weeks and his cancer had already been diagnosed. It spread quickly and he deteriorated a lot over the Easter weekend. He had lost the use of his legs.”
Colin was transferred to St Columba’s Hospice for the last four weeks of his life.
Elaine said: “It is a beautiful place and very peaceful. Once Colin’s pain was under control, I got him back. We were trying to be pragmatic about things. Colin had a very interesting life. He was a recovering alcoholic and probably could have died many times.
“He accepted his fate and said, ‘I’ve had my innings.’ He felt like he had lived a life. And what we had was amazing. It has forever changed my outlook.
“From the very beginning, he told me he saw something precious in me. It’s difficult not to try to look down the line of what could have been.”
Despite his ailing health, Colin told
When her soulmate proposed, Elaine Wallace thought they had years of happiness ahead of them, but just weeks later their dreams were dashed
his fiancée that he wanted to honour his promise to marry her. He said he had made a commitment and wanted to make it happen.
And on April 27 the couple were married by the hospice chaplain.
Elaine said: “It was a really simple and beautiful service. There were obviously concerns about Colin’s health and we had to make sure he was OK to sign a legal document.
“The doctors were there and he was completely with it and he told me it was the completion of our journey together to get married. It was 2pm and he was exhausted. I knew he was near the end. But we had beautiful conversations that day.
“I thanked him for marrying me and I told him I loved him so much. He told me he would always trust in that love and then asked me to cut his nails. That was the banter that we had and that was how Colin was. We watched a film on TV and at 11pm that night he started to get wheezy.”
Elaine had gone to collect her overnight case when she got an emergency call from the hospice.
She returned with just minutes to spare. “The nurse said ‘I don’t think he’s got long’. I sat with him and held his hand and he passed away very peacefully. He did die the same day we got married but I do believe in God and I do think that was the plan for us and for me to be Mrs Wallace.
“I feel so proud to have his name and to carry on. Obviously it’s heartbreaking but I feel he’s still with me.”
Elaine is taking part in this year’s Edinburgh Easter Play, the large-scale community Passion Play taking place in Princes Street Gardens tomorrow.
She said: “It’s approaching the first anniversary of his death and I feel that this play is almost like a bit of a memorial. I’ll absolutely be thinking of him at every moment. I play Mary and I’m the narrator.
“I know there will be emotional scenes and it won’t take much to tap into that emotion. It’ll be authentic. I know that you can’t write the script for life. It is short and we should absolutely make the most of it.”
Elaine says that although she and Colin didn’t get long together, they created a lifetime of memories. She added: “Our relationship was intense and it does feel like we fitted in a lifetime. Colin shared things with me he never shared with other people. We just got each other.
“I’m just so grateful that in his final days his pain was under control and it was back to the Colin I knew and loved. We went back to it just being us again. Just to have had that time with him helps me feel like I can cope with anything.” ● The Edinburgh Easter Play will be performed in Princes Street Gardens tomorrow at 2pm. It is free and unticketed.