BOOKSHELF There were days when I missed Bryan terribly... there’s no remedy

“If you’ve been married that long, been in love with each other and you’ve had a great marriage, you’ve lost not only a great husband and the person that knows everything about you, you’ve lost your greatest friend. It’s an indescribable thing. There’s no remedy.

“The important thing is to keep working and to find something that occupies you. You need distraction and things to look forward to.”

Her wider family have been tremendously supportive, she adds.

She has four grown-up grandchildren and a greatgrandson called Huck, who’ll be three in May.

“My family has got me through the really bad times. I’ve been really lucky.

“My daughters were amazing. The three of us were with him right up to the moment he closed his eyes for the last time.”

Bryan was ill for more than two years, suffering from emphysema and a complex heart condition.

While her family remain close by, Nanette still finds it difficult going home alone. She says: “You change your life in certain ways, but you come home to an empty house, a double bed that you’ve always slept in with your husband and you try to think of happier things.

“The loneliness strikes you at odd moments. I might think, ‘Oh, Bryan and I used to sit here with a cup of coffee and have a laugh’. That’s a part of my life that’s gone.”

When Bryan died, family and friends gathered for a celebration of his life in Nanette’s garden.

Trying to remain positive helps to keep her going, including her writing. Her new book, which she started writing after Bryan died, is illustrated by her friend Lindsay Branagh (wife of Kenneth).

“I’ve just written a television play because I wanted to keep writing. I’ve taken a sculpting course. Keeping occupied is important.

“Moving was good for me,” Nanette concludes. “Here, I’ve created something which is a combination of us both, and have kept the things I love from my old home.

“At the moment, I’m sitting at Bryan’s desk. I love that. I can see pictures we chose together or paintings Bryan bought me as a present. I sense the happy times.”