A mum whose daughter and husband died days apart has found new love with a widower who also lost his wife and child. Alice Palmer, 68, was a lifetime carer to daughter Beth, 20, who suffered with cerebral palsy, scoliosis, blindness and epilepsy.
Alice's world was turned upside down when her husband John, 61, was diagnosed with cancer in March 2019. At the same time, Beth's health began to decline - and Alice would spend her day visiting them both in separate hospitals.
Alice was devastated when she got the news that Beth had died on August 26 - then just six days later John passed away too. Heartbroken Alice had to organise a double funeral for Beth and John with their coffins lay side by side.
But nearly three years on, Alice has remarried - after meeting her new husband, Lee Palmer, 58, on a support site to connect grieving widows and widowers. She married Lee, a painter and decorator, in March 2022 after they began speaking as friends because they shared similar experiences.
Just like Alice, Lee had lost a child and his wife - and their relationship bloomed as they supported one another through their traumas. Alice, from Liverpool, said: "When Beth and John died, I was devastated.
"I never thought I would find love again, I just felt a deep sadness and loneliness like there was nobody I could feel close to. Going back into dating, I was very wary after what I had been through - the fear of losing them and being hurt again.
"But we have both been through it - we both have doubts sometimes but it is a relief and a comfort to love and be loved again. You have to learn to live with the loss otherwise it eats away at you - it's not easy, but you have to move on.
"I personally feel sorry when people just don't find new love - you only get one life and you have to make the most of it."
Lee said: "You're not supposed to lose your kids before you die, it's not supposed to happen. After I lost Joe and Michelle, I realised none of my close friends or family had lost anyone in that way and it was hard.
"When I decided to join that group it felt good to speak to other people who had also lost their children and partners. After speaking to Alice online for a while, I thought 'I like this woman, I like her a lot', and I wanted to meet her.
"I never went on the group looking for romance but there was just something about her. When we met, we just clicked. Now we're married and it's nice to feel alive again. I spent nine or ten months on my own, and now I have someone to look forward to when I get home from work."
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Alice's daughter, Beth, was starved of oxygen at birth and had quadriplegic cerebral palsy, scoliosis, blindness and epilepsy as a result. Alice was Beth's carer for her whole life and the mother-daughter duo were very close.
In March 2019, her husband, John, was diagnosed with liver cancer after experiencing pain in his ribcage. Devastatingly just months later in June 2019, Beth's condition worsened - after she woke up in pain and ended up in intensive care.
John's cancer was deemed terminal around the same time and by the August he had been moved to a local hospice to live out his final days. Alice spent weeks travelling between Beth's intensive care ward and John's hospice to support them both at the same time.
But she got a devastating phone call on August 26, 2019, revealing her daughter had passed away - at the age of 20. Alice said: "I was expecting the news, but when it came I still didn't quite believe it.
"I wished I had been there with her, I was 10 minutes away because I had just visited John at the hospice. I didn't want to tell John because he was so ill, but eventually we had to tell him."
But things only got worse for the heartbroken mum as just six days later, on September 1, she discovered John had passed away as well. So Alice planned a joint funeral for John and Beth - with a pink coffin for Beth and a traditional one for John, side by side.
Alice made sure that Beth wore a beautiful dress for the funeral, so she could look like Audrey Hepburn. Alice said: "I think having to organise the double funeral was the worst, it was so sad. Then at the funeral, walking behind the two coffins in the church, it was devastating."
Alice was so traumatised she couldn't sleep at home for months, staying with sisters because the house felt so empty. One of the ways she dealt with the grief was by joining a website for widows and widowers to support each other through their losses.
That was when she first spoke to Lee - who lost his wife, Michelle, 59, in 2019 of a sudden heart attack after losing his son Joe, 17, in 2013 to sepsis. Lee, from Colchester, Essex, and Alice bonded over their mutual losses, after starting to chat in January 2020.
They spoke initially as friends - but eventually they suspected they might have a deeper connection. Alice said: "Similar experiences brought us together, but we had to meet in person to see if there was a spark there."
They met up for the first time in June 2020 - and sparks flew as they spent a weekend together. Alice said: "I was very wary going back into dating, but I didn't want to be alone all the time.
"Both having lost spouses, it was a question of trusting each other that you won't get hurt again. I'm a very needy person - I wanted to be loved again after everything."
In January 2021, Lee moved up to Liverpool to live with Alice, and the pair married on March 22, 2022. Alice said she wore an emblem of Beth on her dress, while Lee wore one of Joe on his lapel.
Despite Beth and Joe not being there to celebrate, Alice said it was a "happy day" for them both - and next month they celebrate one year of marriage.
"You have to rebuild," she said. "We both saw on that widow site, a lot of people who give up hope of ever being happy again. Some people just wait to die, it seems. And that's such a waste.
"In my view, you have to learn to live with your loss otherwise it eats away at you. You have to move on. You have to make the most of your life because you only get one."
