Loving husband's final gift (From The Bolton News)

Loving husband's final gift

3:29pm Saturday 5th January 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share

A GRIEVING widow will treasure the last gift her devoted husband gave her just two weeks before he died.

Andrew Norris lost his battle against muscular dystrophy shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve.

But a fortnight earlier 46-year-old Mr Norris made sure his wife Carol's birthday was special by buying her an antique gold watch and celebrating with a family meal.

Mrs Norris, aged 58, said: "Andrew was such a special person. He was a bright star who brought a lot of light into people's lives.

"He didn't see himself as brave, he was just a normal man who did as much as he could for as long as he could, and we were extremely happy together."

Mr Norris, of Stonemead Close in Great Lever, was eight years old when he was first diagnosed with the muscle wasting disease muscular dystrophy.

When he was aged 28 and already in a wheelchair, the former British Aerospace worker met Carol and they married three years later.

Ten years ago, he suffered from type two respiratory failure caused by his muscular dystrophy, and he was hooked up to a machine each day to help him breathe.

Mr Norris was passionate about computers and loved to play the keyboard until it became too difficult because of his condition. He continued to read and would chat to people in disabled chatrooms on the internet, offering them support.

On December 21, Mr Norris was rushed to the Royal Bolton Hospital with an obstruction in his bowel.

He was admitted to the high dependency unit but died just before midnight on December 31.

Mrs Norris, who was her husband's full time carer, said: "Just after he died all the New Year fireworks were going off, which seemed fitting."

The funeral will be held at Rivington Parish Church, where the couple married, at 2pm on Wednesday.

It is family flowers only but donations can be made to Bolton Hospice.

• Print
• Email
• Share