TRAGEDY AS FORMER DUNDEE MAN JOSEPH, 43, DIES DAYS BEFORE WEDDING DAY
The partner of a man who died three days before their wedding has spoken of his devastation at losing his soulmate so close to the biggest day of their lives.
Originally from Dundee, Joseph Regan, 43 — known as Joe — died of a heart attack and blood clot while sleeping at their home in Tayport.
He had been due to marry his civil partner, Brian Andrews, earlier this month.
Today, Brian, 42, was joined by his mother, Gail Blackman and his aunt, Sandra Middlemass, who paid tribute to Joe.
The pair had been together for 12 years and had celebrated the sixth anniversary of their civil partnership in October.
Brian’s aunt, Sandra, said: “I had to phone Dundee Registry Office and tell them that, instead of registering their marriage, they would be registering Joe’s death.
“It was very sad and incredibly upsetting for Brian. Joe had a heart of gold.”
Brian said the pair shared a love of music, regularly going to see shows including Riverdance, eighties acts and Motown events.
He said: “I was really looking forward to getting married to him.
“We enjoyed staying in hotels in Edinburgh and places like that. Joe also liked to hire limos and we would go to St Andrews and even Edinburgh in them. We visited the Emmerdale studios three times because we wanted to see what it was like and have a drink in the pub.”
Brian’s mum, Gail, said that Joe loved coming round to her house in Tayport to watch Celtic matches on her TV, and was always very generous.
She said: “He always had money saved up for buying people treats. When Joe and Brian first got together, he loved dancing. He was forever doing somersaults and was very fit.”
In recent years, Joe’s weight increased and when he died on November 8 he weighed 26st, meaning he was too big to be cremated in Dundee. Instead, he was cremated on Monday at Parkgrove Crematorium in Friockheim.
Sandra said: “It was terrible going all the way up there because I know there were a lot of people who really wanted to be there couldn’t make it that far. It also had no links to either of them.”
A spokesman for Dignity, the company which operates Dundee Crematorium, said: “Unfortunately, our cremators can only accept coffins that do not exceed 27” wide x 21” high x 7’7” in length.
“It is unfortunate that we were not approached by the family or their funeral director as we could have helped them to arrange a service at Dundee Crematorium and for the cremation of the coffin to take place at another crematorium with a larger cremator.
“There would have been no additional cost for this service and we would have arranged for the ashes to be returned to us on the next working day.”
He added the company is set to invest in a larger cremator at Dundee.
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