WIFE’S AGONY
SIR Ken Dodd’s widow today reveals the comic is helping her to bear her grief from beyond the grave with words of wisdom.
Lady Anne also tells how the “outpouring of love” from the nation after his death last week at 90 has left her overwhelmed by the “amazing messages and letters of comfort”.
“Ken had a wonderful life,” she said, speaking for the first time of her heartbreak. “I just didn’t want it to end.
“He used to say to people who told him they have lost a loved one, ‘you haven’t lost them, they’ll always be with you’, tapping his heart. “And I keep telling myself that.” Now Anne – Sir Ken’s partner of 40 years who married him two days before his death – is finding solace in the huge outpouring of public support and the mountain of tributes to him.
And she is looking ahead to the Tickling Stick star’s funeral at the Anglican Cathedral in his native Liverpool on March 28.
The service – which Anne wants to be a celebration of his life – will be followed by a private burial attended by close family and friends. And his favourite jam butties will be served at a reception.
For now, Anne is being comforted by family at home, where fans have been leaving flowers, cards and tickling sticks since Sir Ken’s death last Sunday.
RECORD
Tributes flooded in from a string of stars of British screen, society and music, including Sir Paul McCartney, Ant and Dec, Dawn French, David Walliams, John Bishop, Ricky Tomlinson and The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
The London Palladium, where Sir Ken performed a record breaking 42-week