A SHOCKED bride-to-be today paid tribute to her fiance after their Doncaster wedding plans were left in tatters when he died four days after she booked the church.
Sarah Twelvetree, of Nethergate, Westwoodside, booked Haxey Parish Church on August 22 for her marriage to 32-year-old Andrew Barrass, from Mexborough.
But the following Tuesday she was told the devastating news that the man she loved had died of a heart attack.
Now she will attend his funeral at the very church where they had planned to marry next September.
Sarah had known Andrew for two years after he had got her phone number through her brother.
Today she paid tribute to her fiance, a man who would do anything to help anyone in need.
Andrew, who was serving a prison sentence in Doncaster's Moorland Prison, asked her to marry him in the visitors' room at the jail.
Delighted Sarah went ahead and booked the church.
But the next week, she received an unexpected visit from a prison officer. She thought he had got into trouble at the jail and asked: "What's he done?"
She said: "They said he had a heart attack.
"I knew he had a stroke years ago, but he had always seemed himself. I had arranged the wedding and explained to the vicar that Andrew was in Moorland. He was due to be released in June.
"I don't know what to do - I'm just taking every day as it comes. It never crossed my mind he was going to die.
"I will always remember him as a big softie who would do anything to help people. He was really hard working and used to help at my friend's stables."
Sarah said the officers at the prison had been really supportive since her loss. She had been contacted by both the deputy governor and the prison chaplain.
Sarah and Andrew had been a couple for 15 months.
Andrew was a talented carpenter whose work mostly consisted of odd jobs for friends.
An inquest into Andrew's death has been opened and adjourned at Doncaster Coroner's Court.
His funeral will be on Thursday September 11 with a pre-service at Haxey Parish Church, followed by a service in Mexborough and burial at Mexborough Cemetery.
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