“PEOPLE say she was waiting for me,” said Derek Benfield, whose wife, Pam, died moments after briefly waking from unconsciousness to clutch his hand.

“It was the most extraordinary thing. The hospital called me at about 7.15am and said that she didn’t have long, and when I arrived, she was sleeping but she wasn’t in any pain.

“Then her eyelids fluttered and I said it was me, Derek.

“She reached out and took my hand, and died. She knew I was there.”

The wife of the 2003/04 Swindon mayor had suffered a 43-year battle with diabetes, overcome both bowl cancer and cancer of the womb on separate occasions and fought through gallstones, cataracts and limited vision before she died at the Great Western Hospital on April 13.

The popular 82-year-old, who is well known around Covingham and was a teaching assistant at Nythe Primary School, had also recovered after suffering two strokes and a heart attack, but the diabetes meant her arteries were too clogged up to fit new stents in her heart.

“Having someone to talk to, someone to empathise with me, that’s what I’ll miss most,” said Derek, who was a Swindon Borough Councillor for 12 years and deputy leader for eight, and now an active member of Covingham Parish Council.

“Life was one long laugh for us,” he said.

“On the Sunday night before she died as I was leaving she said ‘Derek, your beard has got really white’ and I said living with her would make anybody’s whiskers white.

“I said I’d shave it off and she told me I shouldn’t dare, because she liked it.

“She had a brilliant sense of humour.”

Born just a week apart, Derek and Pam both attended Headlands Grammar School but it wasn’t until they both began rehearsing Dick Whittington with the Old Headlandians Society that they began to know each other.

“She was always the principal boy,” said Derek, who played the rear end the cow in the same panto.

“She had forgotten her script so I gave her mine. And then afterwards I walked her to the bus stop. And that was it.”

They were married on September 14, 1953 and had three children inside four years.

“She was a very clever woman, and she loved to sing. That’s why our grandchildren are so talented.

“She knew how to work a room too, when I was mayor and we went to functions she wouldn’t stay in the corner but I would work one half and she the other.

“I was runner up for the Mayor of Great Britain but that wouldn’t have happened without her.”

Pam leaves behind her children, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A service of thanksgiving to Pam will take place At Christ Church in Old Town today(apr24) at 1.30pm. Attendees are encouraged to wear bright colours. It will be followed by a private ceremony at Kingsdown Crematorium.

Family flowers only, but donations are appreciated for Diabetes UK, care of Hillier Funeral Service.

Call 01793 522797.