WIDOW’S SAD
JUST days after her husband’s funeral, Lindsey Briggs is still struggling with the realisation she has made herself a widow at the age of 40.
The loving mum fought, and won, a year-long legal battle so her brain damaged policeman husband, Paul, 43, could be allowed to die.
And when he passed away peacefully in a hospice last month, Lindsey knew she had carried out his wishes and freed him from a “living hell”.
But her relief that Paul is now at peace is mixed with overwhelming sorrow at the loss of her soulmate – and the fear that she will always be “judged” for wanting her husband dead.
Lindsey tells the Sunday Mirror: “I have had wonderful support from people across the country who understand I was only acting out of love for Paul.
“But there are others – mostly hiding behind their computers – who have left nasty comments and accused me of just wanting to move on with my own life.
“Yesterday someone even came up to me saying, ‘Oh, you’ll get lonely, but I’m sure you’ll meet somebody else.’
“I was stunned. My husband has been dead less than a month. I can’t imagine ever wanting anyone else. I was 18 when I met Paul. He was ‘ The One’ for 22 years, and he always will be.
“Our five-year-old daughter Ella is my only priority now. I just want her to be happy and secure.”
Lindsey is backing a charity campaign to raise awareness of “living wills.”
Compassion in Dying is urging people to make legally- binding “Advance Decisions” recording their treatment wishes should tragedy strike.
HORRIFIC
The charity had a 40 per cent surge in enquiries after the Sunday Mirror first told of Lindsey’s battle. Lindsey, who has made her own “living will”, says: “If something positive can come out of this Paul won’t have died in vain.”
Paul – a Merseyside traffic officer and Gulf war veteran – suffered severe head injuries after being knocked off his motorbike by a car in 2015.
Chelsea Rowe, 26, got 12 months for dangerous driving after veering into the wrong lane of the Birkenhead flyover. She has never apologised, but Lindsey says: “I have never wished her any harm.”
Paul was left in a vegetative state. Lindsey, a PA to a cardiologist could see “sheer terror” in his eyes when they flickered open.
She knew he would not want to be kept alive but, as he had not made an Advance Decision, Lindsey had to challenge his doctors and the Official Solicitor in the Court of Protection.
A judge ruled in her favour in December and Paul was moved to Wirral Hospice St Johns where he was kept pain-free while nutrition was gradually removed. He died 10 days later. Speaking from their family home in the Wirral, Merseyside, Lindsey reveals how their daughter – who had not seen him since soon after the accident in July 2015 – overcame her fear of her dying daddy’s appearance to say a moving goodbye.
Lindsey explains: “Paul had his own lovely room with French doors overlooking a garden and a pond and it was so peaceful.
The hospice staff were wonderful with Ella. They had a big family room. They gave her pizza and made her feel at home. She knew why we were there. She knew Daddy was going to die, like her nana and granddad had died.
“When Paul was in hospital she had become too frightened to see him. He was linked up to machines with tubes, his body had shrivelled and sometimes he was thrashing around with his eyes open.
“But the hospice staff said no matter how old children are they should be given the choice of seeing their dying loved one, so I asked Ella, ‘Do you want to see Daddy’ and she said, ‘ Yes.’ I carried her in and Paul was lying so peacefully she wasn’t scared.
“She looked at him and then we put up