Lynda Bellingham: Husband’s touching final tribute to star
LYNDA Bellingham’s husband has paid a poignant tribute to the late TV star with a new headstone styled on a theatre stage.
Michael Pattemore, 60, designed the memorial in tribute to her stage and screen career.
The inscription on the white marble reads: “Curtain raised 31st May 1948, the final curtain came down 19th October 2014. Actress, author and presenter, unique and loving wife and mother, but 10 years was not enough.”
It has been installed at Lynda’s grave in Crewkerne, Somerset, a year after her death last October.
A bench in her memory has also been placed at Townsend cemetery with a brass plaque describing her as “a unique mother and wife”.
Michael said the headstone was a perfect tribute to his wife, most famous for playing the mother in the Oxo TV adverts and her role in All Creatures Great And Small.
He said: “It is absolutely perfect, exactly how I wanted it to be.
“Crewkerne is where I’m from and Lynda loved it here, too.
“I wanted her headstone to be something different and that people who come to see her will remember.
“I have had so many people ask me where she is buried and where the headstone is.
“I have been so touched by the fact that so many people have shown so much love for her and want to pay their respects.
“She was such an amazing woman and she deserved a headstone that would refl ect that.”
Lynda’s death, at the age of just 66, followed a year- long battle with colon cancer and sparked a deluge of tributes from showbusiness stars and fans.
Michael, whose new book about his life with Lynda has just been published, said it was Lynda’s humility that made her so popular.
He added: “She had time for people, especially when they wanted to speak to her.”