THE Wanted star Tom Parker’s widow has told how she held his hand as he died — and said it was a “beautiful” moment.
The singer passed away in March aged 33 after an 18-month battle with brain cancer.
Speaking for the first time about Tom’s death, Kelsey Parker said: “He wasn’t in any pain.”
Kelsey, 32, told The Sun on Sunday: “It was still beautiful until the very end. It was just us and there was so much love in that room.”
The mum of two, wearing a hat emblazoned with her husband’s initials, talked about Tom’s final hours in a hospice.
And she told how she was convinced he returned to be with her moments after she gave him a final kiss.
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Kelsey also told of the heartbreaking moment she told their two-year-old daughter Aurelia that she was going to make sure the angels safely collected her daddy.
She said she fell in love “at first sight” with Tom as a teenager, long before he and bandmates Max George, 33, Jay McGuiness, 31, Siva Kaneswaran, 33, and 29-year-old Nathan Sykes became famous with a string of hit songs.
But she said some of the most precious moments they spent together came in the days before his death.
Tom was in St Christopher’s Hospice, near their South London home, following treatment for grade four glioblastoma.
With tears streaming down her face Kelsey said: “I got into bed with him. We were in bed together for two hours, I just wanted that time with him.
“I didn’t want anyone coming in. We needed that time together to talk.
“It was romantic even then. Yes, we were in a hospice but that was Tom as a person, it never mattered where we were.
“He was always so romantic, loving and caring, and absolutely worshipped the ground I walked on.
“That night I could see within him that he was still trying to figure a way out of this. He’d been in the hospice for just over a week.
“I said, ‘You know Tom, I will be OK, the kids will be OK. I will make sure that everything you want them to know, the things that you’ve taught me over the years, I promise to teach them it all’.
“He said, ‘I know you’re going to be OK’. He then took off his wedding ring and put it on my finger.
“I think he knew then it was the end but he still had the Tom fight in him. He didn’t want to go.
“You always want that miracle and I was wishing for that miracle. Of course you want that.”
Tom had done everything he could to fight his cancer — and help others by raising money and awareness — since his diagnosis in October 2020 after having unexplained seizures.
He had 30 rounds of chemotherapy and 30 radiotherapy sessions and later spent three weeks in Spain for specialist treatment.
He returned to the UK at the beginning of March so he could join his bandmates on stage for The Wanted’s reunion UK tour.
The last picture of Kelsey and Tom together shows her planting a tender kiss on his head backstage at London’s 02 following The Wanted’s show there on March 15.
Kelsey, who now wears Tom’s platinum wedding ring along with her own, said: “Tom just really, really wanted to do that tour, and I’m so proud of him for doing it.
“But the morning after I felt something was wrong. I thought it might be exhaustion.
“He went downhill, as they say, from there. He wanted to go into the hospice. I wanted him to stay at home but he made that choice.
“The very end happened quite quickly, which was typical Tom.
“His mum always says how he does everything so fast. But I’m so thankful and grateful for that.
“He wasn’t in any pain and we didn’t go through weeks and weeks of watching him suffer.
“It was like he’d decided, ‘No, I can’t put anyone through anything more. I’ve done the tour, I’ve done everything I set out to do.
“I’ve raised all this money, all this awareness for brain cancer, I’ve been open about it all but now it’s time for me to go’.
“That’s what it felt like when it happened. I was with him. It was still beautiful until the very end.
“It was just love. There was so much love in that room and it was just us. It was me and him and it was just lovely.
“We had music playing in the room all day for him, it was his life and it was his passion.
“Live Forever by Oasis was playing. He was sedated and I was holding his hand.
“Everyone was at the hospice, all our family and friends, but it was just me with him in the room. We had that time together.
“When he passed away I closed his eyes and I gave him a kiss and said I love you. I told him he was my everything.”
Kelsey said goodbye to her husband for the last time and went outside.
She said: “I was sitting there on this bench, crying, when I looked up and this feather fell down from the sky.
“I said to Tom before he passed away, ‘Will you give me signs every day’, and he said, ‘Yes’. I knew straight away it was him.
“I kept that feather, I still have it in a little glass pot on my dressing table.”
Kelsey then had to do one of the toughest things she will ever have to do and tell Tom’s “babies” Aurelia and 18-month-old Bodhi that their dad had died.
Kelsey said: “Aurelia had been getting really confused when Tom went into the hospice.
“On the Wednesday when I knew I was going in to see Tom I said to her, ‘I want to make sure that Daddy is OK and the angels come and take him’.
“We’ve just been really really honest with the children because you have to be.
“But having to tell her that her daddy had died, that was really tough.
“I couldn’t talk, it was like I had something stuck in my throat, I couldn’t say it but I knew I had to say those words to her because she had to know.
“She just said, ‘OK Mummy’, but I needed to be straight with her.”
But despite his cancer battle, Tom and Kelsey had not discussed his funeral arrangements.
Kelsey said: “He was doing so well. We were the ‘Positive Parkers’ and never spoke about it.”
The funeral took place on April 20. His bandmates carried his coffin into the church as Champagne Supernova by Oasis was played, while tearful fans lined the streets.
Kelsey said: “He would have loved the funeral. I don’t think he ever realised how many hearts he actually touched.
“I try to tell myself how lucky I am. How lucky I was to find Tom, the love of my life, my soulmate and best friend.
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“What me and Tom had some people don’t ever find that in their lifetimes. It’s so hard but I’ve got to concentrate on all the positives.
“And I will continue to look for his special signs every day because I know he’ll be with me watching over us all.”
