PHOTO: EDDIE MA CDONALD
Mandy Kimberly, 31, was devastated when she became a widow suddenly at the age of 29. Thanks to fantastic support – and a tipsy agreement to run a half-marathon – she is finding a new lease of life.
Picture this: you’re 29 years old, happily planning a future with your husband – and then he’s gone. That’s what happened to Mandi in September 2014 when her beloved husband, Terry, contracted bacterial meningitis and died suddenly. “I don’t know if I’d ever actually sat down and thought 'If Terry died, what would I do?'” she says.
Mandi, who is originally from Nashville, Tennessee, met Terry when she was 20 years old and studying languages. She wanted to travel to Europe; Terry had lived in the USA as a child and knew her brother-in-law, who suggested Terry could act as tour guide. The couple dated long-distance for four years before marrying and settling in Northampton, where Mandi started work as a secondary school teacher. Although she ran to get in shape for their wedding, and Terry enjoyed hiking, they weren’t exactly sporty, she says. “If you’d asked us, I’m sure we would have said we were active. But in reality we were couch potatoes who went for a hike once in a while!”
However, she says that Terry was “in perfect health”, and his sudden illness and death came as a huge shock. “Even in the hospital when they told us he might die, it genuinely never occurred to me that he would. He was just going to make it,” says Mandi. “And then he didn’t and everything just went black for a little while.