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DOUBLE THE LOVE
I got engaged less than a year after my husband died, people can judge but he set me up from beyond the grave
Lucy found love again eight months after losing her husband
A WOMAN who remarried a year after being widowed said her late husband sent her a new love from beyond the grave.
Lucy Sutton-Hesford, 27, was heartbroken when she lost her beloved Simon just weeks after they tied the knot.
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But eight months later she fell in love again with a woman called Claire - who she says was "a gift" from her late husband.
Lucy and Claire are now married and Lucy says her childhood sweetheart Simon is to thank for their relationship.
DYING WISH
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, Lucy said: "Simon was my soulmate and as he was dying he said to me 'I want to you find someone who loves you as much as I do'.
"When he died the pain was indescribable. We'd only been married for a few weeks. I never thought I could survive losing him.
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"I thought I would die from grief at the time. I wasn't sure what there was to be grateful for. All I felt was pain."
Lucy's partner of nine years Simon, 27, a therapist, had been battling autoimmune hepatitis and had gone into organ failure.
He died seven weeks after the pair got married in January 2022.
Clairvoyant, Lucy, said he was a big believer in her "psychic abilities" and described him as "the most giving and caring person she'd ever met."
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She explains: "The only thing that got me through those terrible dark days was knowing how much Simon had loved me and using my psychic abilities to help others.
"When I met Claire eight months after Simon died I knew without a doubt that she was a gift from him.
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“I remember there was just a surge of energy between us that was so strong it took my breath away.
"I'd only ever felt that with Simon. I just knew he'd had something to do with it. Wherever he was I knew he was rooting for my happiness."
INSTANT CONNECTION
Lucy, of Neath, South Wales, was doing live clairvoyance readings on TikTok when she received a message from Claire.
Lucy says: "I am usually overwhelmed with messages from people wanting to contact their loved ones.
“But one message stood out to me - it was Claire, she asked for a reading. I just felt this surge of energy that I can only describe as a 'frisson'.
"I messaged Claire and we began chatting and four days later we met up.
“I felt like I had known her forever. We sat by the sea and just talked non-stop for seven hours. I told her all about Simon."
Lucy and Claire became inseparable and after just two months of dating Lucy gave Claire a 'promise' ring.
WORRIED ABOUT JUDGEMENT
Lucy said: "I told her she was a gift to me sent from Simon because I felt his presence so strongly.
"Of course, I was worried about what others would think and that they would be shocked and judge me for falling in love again so soon after losing Simon.
"But my friends and family were so supportive. They saw me happy for the first time since I'd lost Simon."
In January 2023, Lucy proposed to Claire on top of a mountain in the Brecon Beacons.
She said: "At the top I proposed and asked her to marry me.
“I felt so much love and I knew Simon was to thank for it all."
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MOVING ON
Lucy and Claire married on October 21 last year wearing almost identical wedding dresses, witnessed by 85 friends and family.
"We felt like a pair of real princesses as we walked down the aisle on the arms of our dads,” she says.
“It was the most beautiful day and I knew that Simon was right there with us.
"We said our vow to Taylor Swift's Wildest Dreams and the Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice.
“It was so incredibly emotional and we laughed and cried. I've never felt so much love in the room.
"As Simon always said to me: 'There is so much to be grateful for. I am so grateful for every single day.’ Simon's love will always be part of our lives and our story.
"I know I am so very lucky - I've found true love not once, but twice in this lifetime.
"They say truth can be stranger than fiction and my life has certainly turned out that way."
Claire, 35, added: "When I met Lucy I knew I'd met my soulmate. It's hard to put into word but our connection was instant.
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"I'm so lucky to have her as my wife. We talk about Simon all the time.
"He's part of everything we do and even though I didn't meet him I almost feel like I know him. I believe that he brought me and Lucy together. We are incredibly lucky."
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What is an autoimmune disease?
Autoimmune disorders, which affect around four million people in the UK, are a group of conditions which cause your immune system to attack healthy body tissues, organs, and cells.
There are more than 80 known autoimmune diseases which include rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes and alopecia.
Most autoimmune diseases are not fatal, however, some can be deadly or lead to life-threatening complications.