The heartbroken wife of a man who died while on a stage do has revealed he made a harrowing call less than an hour before he died – saying he felt anxious. Billy Morley was celebrating with pals ahead of a friend’s wedding when he died in a hotel room. It’s believed he suffered a heart attack shortly after the call.
Ashley Morley said the 45-year-old, who was a dad to five-year-old April and stepdad to 13-year-old Jack, had kissed his family goodbye before heading to Liverpool for the bash. Recalling the harrowing events of that tragic day, the 36-year-old said the phone call she received from her husband “still doesn’t feel real”.
The Mirror reports she told the Liverpool Echo: “He had called me in the morning and said he felt really anxious. We both suffer from anxiety but it’s usually nothing to worry about.
“Whenever we are away from each other we always checked in. I had spoken to him about 1.30am when he’d got back to the hotel, he sounded drunk but fine.
“I had said to him to go to sleep and we will speak in morning because we were going on holiday in a few days, so I was telling him to get some rest and we will drive to the airport when he’s ready, and that there was no rush to get to the airport.
“He rang me the next morning and said ‘I’m really anxious, I’ve not slept.’ I said to him ‘I’m sorry I wish I could do something’ and asked if he wanted me to get him a train home and I’ll collect him from Penrith station.
“I told him I’d call him back in 30 minutes to see how he was. As I was putting the phone down I heard him say to Alex [his friend] ‘I can’t stand up’.”
Ashley went to look for trains on Trainline to see if she could get him an earlier train home. She said: “I found him one and went to ring him back. There was no answer.
“I called again and no answer, so I messaged to say ‘you are worrying me’. Then my best friend’s husband [Ryan] rang me and said it’s not great, he [Billy] is with the paramedics.
“I said, ‘is he dead?’. The phone call still doesn’t seem real. I’m devastated for the lads having to witness it and Ryan having to ring me. I kept calling Ryan because I needed to know what was going on.
“It went on for 45 minutes and then he rang me and said ‘I’m really sorry’ – and that was it. Basically he suffered a massive heart attack and he was gone.
“It’s only been ten weeks so it’s all so raw for us all. We’re trying to get through it every day. I would be so lost without my family to be honest.”
Ashley met builder Billy, from Cleator Moor, Cumbria, eight years ago after meeting on a night out. She said they knew of each other previously they had began talking during that night out and were inseparable ever since.
She said: “He moved in basically straight away. We had a very good marriage, he was my person. Some people never get what me and Billy had in their lifetime and we were lucky for that.
“It’s cruel but I’m so pleased that I got that with him. I was everything to him and he was everything to me and I know that. He was an absolutely brilliant dad.
“April was his world. It’s a heartbreaking thing when it’s a sudden loss. He would never have chosen to leave us. I have to live our life for both of us now, for April.”
Ashley paid an emotional tribute to her “amazing” husband who was “funny” and “always smiling” as she said: “He was very much a people person that loved to be around people.
“He was always helping people, he was a builder and would help people with his work and his customers became family. He was an all round lovely person and it came from his family.
“His family are lovely people, as soon as we met they treated me like a daughter. I don’t know what I’d do without them to be honest. We all absolutely adored him. Every day is totally different now.”
Ashley also thanked the people who helped Billy, who was a huge Liverpool FC fan, the day he sadly passed away. She said: “Without the people who helped that day I dread [to think of] the circumstances.
“It breaks my heart that he wasn’t at home but I couldn’t imagine my little girl watching that. I’m glad her last memory of her dad is him giving her a little kiss before he went and saying goodbye, and that’s how I want her to remember him.
“He loved April more than anything. He was always thinking of us. When we got his suitcase back with his stuff in and we were going through it, we found that he had got a little snow globe for April with the Liver Building inside and a Liverpool fridge magnet.
“Whenever we went away to cities we would always get a fridge magnet. The feeling of missing him is unbearable. My kids, they have been my rocks. We will get through it.”
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