God needed another angel – bye Tanya
IT'S not good news Linda. It's too late. It's going to be the wedding I've got to look forward to now. I'll never get the op. You have to be well enough to have it. Life's a bitch.
Those were Tanya Lovert's last words to me, gasping for breath as she struggled on oxygen in Newcastle RVI, where she had been so many times before.
This time I knew she was so critically ill she might not make it and it was with a heavy heart that I went home last Friday night after speaking to Tanya on the telephone.
For her family it was the start of a harrowing weekend as spirited Tanya, of Coronation Close, Hendon, fought, desperately hanging on for her devoted fiance, Brent Cannon, 25, to make it to her bedside from the oil rig in the North Sea where he works.
He never did because it was a Sunday and he had to wait to be airlifted off. By the time he landed and caught a taxi to Edinburgh to meet his mother and father, Julie and Brian, who had driven from Sunderland, he was met with the devastating news that his "princess" had died.
Tanya's mother, Michelle and I spoke just half an hour after her treasured only daughter had slipped away.
It was a sadness beyond all telling that the beautiful young woman with a matching spirit, never did make it to her wedding day.
I believe it was no coincidence that Tanya and I met. She didn't find me. I found her by chance when I heard of how she was desperate to bring her wedding day forward as her condition was worsening from cystic fibrosis.
After Brent, of Beresford Park, told me: "I'd marry her tomorrow," I was determined to see them wed. And unknown to them and thanks to the amazing generosity of local business people, within an hour I had most of a wedding day package all but arranged.
Tanya cried for joy when I told her and Brent was speechless. It's a moment I'll never forget and always treasure. Having the wedding to look forward to gave Tanya so much happiness. She had already been dealt the hammer blow that she was too ill to survive a gruelling double lung transplant op but still she hoped. And this wonderfully strong young woman, whose beaming smile lit up the room, kept on smiling.
Such was her strength of character. All her life Tanya had battled cystic fibrosis which affects the lungs, pancreas and gastro-intestinal tract. She knew and accepted the fact that without the op she wasn't going to survive.
But with the love of her life by her side, she kept on beaming despite being on seven injections three times a day, 30 different tablets, needing oxygen, a nebuliser and being fed at night through a tube in her tummy.
After I told their bitter-sweet love story it touched so many hearts.
I know now that Tanya was a very special woman who has left a legacy of love not just in the hearts of those closest to her, and especially her adored Brent but to so many whose lives for such a brief time were touched by hers.
Tanya's life was tragically too short but she is an inspiration to us all, that like her we make the most of life, accept what we can't change and make the very best of what we do have. Always Tanya hoped. That's the kind of girl she was. She lived in hope of being married in the Minster on June 22. I'd hoped to see her married sooner. But she knew her 20th birthday two weeks ago tomorrow, was out of the question because she had to go into the Freeman to be re-assessed for the op.
What no-one expected was that Tanya would become so critically ill so suddenly.
Her passing has been devastating for all who loved her. And she was so well loved. Brent, who had been with Tanya for two years, told me what a battler she was right till the end and desperately clinging to life to see him: "The last few hours she was panting and hanging on because she knew I was on my way home and wanted to see me. She never gave up, never put her head down. She knew I loved her.
"She was the best thing that happened to me and the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and the strongest girl I have ever met."
It was such a privilege Tanya seeing the joy on your lovely face when you knew the wedding was arranged and I'll never forget how much that meant to you when you told me: "I just thought it was never going to happen and now you have said it is, it's the best news I have heard in all my life."
It's so tragic that it wasn't meant to be. It was such a privilege knowing you and like so many who will be at your funeral tomorrow I'll never forget you. And even before I knew that you didn't want anyone wearing black, I had decided to wear something happy and bright to match the girl I knew all too briefly but who mattered so much.
Why do the lovely ones have to go so soon? As one friend said: "God needed another angel."
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
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Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
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