Dedication | Andy Wilkins

Dedication...

This site is dedicated to the memory of my late wife, Therese, who died on 4 February 1998 at the totally unacceptable age of 26.

Therese and I met on a skiing holiday in Switzerland in 1993, she a young Dane, finishing her studies in Paris and returning to Copenhagen, and I an English software engineer working in Brussels. A fun loving Dane who captured my heart. An avid Abba fan, she was my Dancing Queen.

And so began a long distance romance that was to last over two years before we were finally together. During that time we met whenever we could, surviving on a diet of expensive telephone calls and letters. We didn't have the luxury of the Internet back then.

On 13 August 1995, Therese gave birth to our son, Thomas, at the University hospital in Copenhagen, the same hospital that had witnessed her birth in 1971. What more could a father wish for on his own birthday too? Without doubt, the best day of my life, closely followed by the second on 19 October 1996 when Therese and I were married at the Søllerød church in Denmark.

Continuing our lives in England, Therese concentrated on completing her masters degree in history, while I continued to build my own software business.

If our lives were complete, they were made even more so in August 1997 with the news that Therese was pregnant once again.

I will never comprehend what went wrong. Life is cruel sometimes and it offers no explanation for its actions.

At five months, Therese was taken ill and rushed into hospital. All pregnancy related conditions were quickly dismissed. More detailed tests revealed that she had cancer.

Returning to Denmark to be with family and friends, Therese gave birth to our daughter Nathalie three months prematurely on 26 January 1998, once again at the University hospital in Copenhagen.

A day filled with mixed emotions, in a building that only two and a half years earlier had been the scene of so much joy.

We were a family of four for just nine days. In five bleak weeks our world was turned upside down, leaving us all numbed by our loss.

Therese is buried in the grounds of the church in which we were married, yet another scene of so much happiness and sorrow.

Dearest Therese, you are my inspiration, you are my light.

Through Thomas and Nathalie you will remain with me forever; and you will be forever in my heart.

To my fun loving Dane... Dance on, my darling...