It was love at first sight when the 68-year-old Eileen Brown, of Binley in Coventry, met Keith at Coventry’s Locarno nightlclub aged 15.
They married two years later and raised three children. But her own wellbeing took a backseat when she became his carer.
Keith was diagnosed with dementia six years ago and she struggled to cope while he deteriorated and she underwent breast cancer treatment.
Her husband was all she had known so it came as a devastating blow when he sadly died aged 66.
She said:
I had gone from home to him in terms of getting married. I had never lived on my own and I didn’t want to be here after he died. I isolated myself and didn’t want to go out. I’d lost a lot of friends through his dementia. It was like I was just a shell.
Eileen was on the brink of a nervous breakdown and was taking antidepressants to lift her mood, but nothing seemed to work until she came across Mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness is a form of meditation which through breathing exercises reduces stress and anxiety, improves self-awareness and overall health and wellbeing.
Looking back I was in a bubble, always hiding behind my husband. I never knew who I really was until now. She added.