A man who suddenly lost his partner in her sleep has sold “everything” to give her the “Cinderella” send off she deserves.
Mark Flood, 55, discovered his partner, Elaine Graham, 50, had stopped breathing after they both nodded off for a nap. Mark, from Norris Green, Liverpool, says he is “empty” without Elaine, who was known as Laine to her loved ones.
He told the Liverpool Echo: “We had fallen asleep next to each other on the sofa, I woke up and she wasn’t breathing. I said ‘you alright’ but she wasn’t breathing, there was no air coming in and out of her mouth.
“I was shouting and screaming, I phoned my friend and paramedics because I didn’t know what to do, they told me to get Lanie on the floor and pump her heart but it didn’t start up again.
“We went to hospital, I thought she was going to be OK, paramedics were doing everything they could. Then the hospital told me she wasn’t going to be OK, they said she wasn’t going to make it because she was without oxygen for so long and she has just gone.”
Mark says he is “empty” without Elaine, who has been his “everything” since they met over 25 years ago. The couple met in the Yew Tree pub in Huyton over two decades ago, they had gone to a party at her friend’s house afterwards and “hit it off”. Mark revealed they had been “inseparable since.”
He said: “We ended up going out, we just hit it off big time. She was an amazing woman, she was so funny and so strong, a proper little soldier. We lost a little boy together, she knew something was wrong and we were told the baby had died, we went through all that together and she was so strong about it.
“She was unbelievable, I miss her so much. My brain is empty without her, I can’t cope. She is my little soldier, she didn’t pull through this time and I’m devastated. She was so funny. One of my favourite stories, she loved cheesecake and we had a cheesecake in the fridge and she fell asleep and I started to have a nibble of it, then before I knew it I had ate it all so I put it on her knee and put some cream around her mouth and a spoon in her hand.
“When she woke up I said ‘Laine what have you done’ and she was apologising, I had her on for two years. She kept coming back [home] with cakes for me all the time. Then she found out because I was telling one of my friends and she heard me and called me a s***. And for Valentines Day this year when we come to give each other our cards they were exactly the same, that’s how similar we were. We were amazing together.”
Mark has sold “everything” he owns to get the money together to give Elaine the “Cinderella” funeral she deservers. He said: “I’ve sold everything I can to get her a Cinderella carriage for her funeral. This is the last time I will be around her before she is gone so I want to do everything for her.
“I’ve sold my bike to get a few pounds and I’m selling everything in my possession for her because she is an amazing girl, I want to make it special. I miss her so much. We were supposed to be staying in an apartment in Southport for a week together over Christmas for a little break, but we won’t be going now, it’s devastating.
“I have to stay strong for her, I miss her so much, in the 25 years we have been together we have never been apart. We have always come good, we trusted each other, I could always sense when she was around me.”
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