A Final Goodbye

I was newlywed and dying, but I had one last trip to make...

- Nicola Tatupu, 38, from Dunedin, New Zealand

On my wedding day, I looked into the eyes of my new hubby Uaina and I couldn’t have felt luckier.

My soulmate had been born on the other side of the world. And yet I’d found him!

I’d emigrated to New Zealand in September 2003 with my then-hubby and our two kids Alex and Katie.

We later had Adrianna in April 2007.

But sadly the marriage hadn’t lasted.

It was a tough time, especially being so far from home.

But then, a few years later, I met Uaina where we worked as prison guards.

And we just clicked.

Uaina loved my kids and I adored his girl Linette.

Now we were making it official, surrounded by loved ones. The only tiny dampener on the day was that my family hadn’t been able to make it out to New Zealand to join us.

It’d been 12 years since I’d been back to the UK.

My mum Denise, 58, and Dad Paul, 59, had been out to see us in New Zealand – but this time the flights had been too expensive.

We were still so close, despite the distance, and they loved talking to Uaina on Skype.

Uaina and I had planned a honeymoon to Samoa, where he was from, a few weeks after the wedding.

But we never made it there...

‘My back is killing me,’ I said to Uaina after the wedding.

It’d been aching a lot, but I’d put it down to a horse riding trek earlier in the year.

I’d seen a doctor already, but they’d sent me home, advising me to buy some Deep Heat.

It hadn’t helped.

‘Get it checked out again,’ Uaina said.