PA ImagesFormer football star and actor Vinnie Jones has shared the last love letter his wife wrote to him before she passed away in July.
The 54-year-old lost his beloved wife Tanya to cancer after she was diagnosed with a melanoma in 2013.
Last year it spread to her brain but Jones refused to believe he might lose her, telling The Mirror the couple ‘couldn’t talk about her dying because [he] just couldn’t accept it’.
PA ImagesBefore her death, 53-year-old Tanya wrote a card to her husband to give him strength when she was no longer around. On the front it read ‘Always Believe Something Wonderful is Going to Happen’.
The former footballer has since shared Tanya’s loving words, which he admits caused him to ‘break down’.
She wrote:
To my love Vin, something wonderful happens to me every day. It’s being with you. You are my morning sunshine the moment I wake. All my love, Tanya.
PA ImagesJones has expressed his belief in the afterlife and in the hours after Tanya’s death he believes he was visited by her spirit. He has bought a cemetery plot adjacent to his wife’s in LA’s Forest Lawn Cemetery so his ashes can be buried alongside her’s.
Speaking to The Mirror, Jones said he’s waiting to join her in heaven:
I’m content to crash through the rest of my life in Heaven’s waiting room until Tanya calls me.
The rest of my life is not a long time if we are going to be together for eternity. But I want to live to do the right thing by our daughter, Kaley, and Tanya’s family.
But she’ll call me when the time is right.
So so sorry to hear of the sad loss of Vinnie Jones wife Tanya to the dreaded cancer.. Hard man of football clearly softened by the love of his wife and family.. Our thoughts, love and prayers are with you and your family Vinnie during this difficult time..
— Boyd Brimsted (@BBrimsted) October 6, 2019
The couple first met when they were children in their hometown of Watford, however they didn’t get together until after Tanya’s first marriage to footballer Steve Terry broke down.
At that time, she was already struggling with health issues. Tanya almost died in childbirth with her daughter Kaley, who Jones later adopted, and had to have an emergency heart transplant.
Jones asked Tanya’s father, Lou, for her hand in marriage, and despite Lou warning him life would be difficult because of her health, Jones wasn’t dissuaded.
Recalling his conversation with her father, Jones said:
I promised him I loved her and that never changed and never will.
A message I’ve received this morning,
‘Hi vin I just read the interview in the Sunday mirror. You and Tan’s have the truest love and I feel so honored to have been able to see it. It’s what all relationships should strive for, stay strong I’m here if you ever need to talk xxxx’
— Vinnie Jones (@VinnieJones65) October 6, 2019
Tanya died weeks after the couple’s 25th wedding anniversary in June, which she spent in intensive care. They had planned to mark the occasion by flying family and friends from the UK for a New Year’s Eve party in LA but sadly Tanya didn’t make it.
The friends and family are planning to go ahead with the celebration, though Jones has admitted it will be ‘tough’.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677
Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.