A grieving husband who couldn’t bear to see his wife taken to the mortuary slept next to her body in their bedroom for six days.
When Wendy died at the couple’s family home in Derby, northern England, after a 10 year battle with cervical cancer, her husband Russell was determined to keep her at home with their four children.
Russell now insists it should be “the way we treat our dead” and is nothing to be scared of.
“Wendy died very peacefully, fully sedated, in no pain in mine and [son] Dylan’s arms with our ever faithful dog Elvis smuggled up right next to her too,” Russell told The Sun
“She looked absolutely beautiful, just like she always did in life: no effort, no make-up, just radiant beauty.
“We have been fooled by TV and films into thinking there is something to be scared about with dead bodies – there is not, I can assure you.”
Wendy was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2006 but shunned chemotherapy and radiotherapy, choosing to instead embrace “natural health”.
The couple travelled around Europe in a caravan until Wendy’s pain became unbearable and forced them to return to Britain.
Wendy wanted to die at home instead of a hospital and was nursed by Russell alongside her four sons until her death on the 21st of April.
“For a long time I have been determined to have Wendy at home when she died,” Russell explained.
“I did not want her in the mortuary or handed over to a funeral director, I wanted us to take care of her ourselves at our family home, and have her in our bedroom so I could sleep in the same room.”
He said having Wendy at home was “an emotional decompression chamber” which helped the family accept her death.
“The idea of her being taken away in a plastic body bag hours after death is so alien to us all now we really don’t think we could have taken it.”
