From wife TO WIDOW

Shelly Lewis, 39, Cheltenham

From my very first blind date with Mark, I’d been smitten. I’d been reluctant when friends tried to set us up, but we were the perfect match, just as they’d thought.

Straight away, I was honest about wanting kids - I was 27 and ready to settle down.

‘I feel the same,’ he grinned.

Just two months after we first met, I fell pregnant with our son, Joe, now nine.

We moved in together and life was perfect.

‘I never thought I was destined for happily ever after,’ I’d tell Mark, ‘then you came along.’

And seeing what an amazing father he was only made me love him even more.

When Joe was old enough Mark would take him fishing and helped with his karate practise.

‘He’s a right daddy’s boy,’ Mark would tell me, beaming proudly.

Then in 2013, our daughter Phoebe, now five, arrived and we had our princess.

‘Life feels complete now,’ I told my mum,